Teeth

I really hate tooth pain. HATE HATE HATE.

I have 5 bad teeth from childhood. Don’t ask about they whys and wherefores – just trust me that I have problems to fix from my childhood regarding my teeth.

Teeth 1 and 2 cost me a small fortune and are fine. They were in the upper left back part of my mouth. $3,000, including 4 sedations. Yes, my childhood dental experiences now require that I have sedation. These teeth were done in 2008.

Tooth 3 was done this autumn. I went in July for my 6 month checkup and we figured out that this was the next one, based on the idea that a pocket of nastiness on the x-ray was on its way to the root. I was not in any pain at this point. This tooth was to cost about $1,700.

So I started the appointments in August. The first one revealed that the pocket of nastiness was really a pocket of raging infection and when they opened the tooth, it all just ran out.

Appointment 2 was finishing the root canal and determining that I had recovered, without antibiotics, from the infection.

Appointment 3 was making the post, molding the perm crown and putting on the temp crown.

Appointment 4 was last week, and it was to put on the new tooth.

And today at 8am, the tooth, which has NO NERVE and thus should have NO PAIN, is KILLING ME. And there is no professional dentist in the office until Monday to help me.

Tylenol ain’t cutting it, people.

UPDATE: The theory is that there is infection in there. An Rx has been called in for both antibiotics and pain relief.

Lists

Lists, lists, I love lists. So did my mother. And so does my sister. Which means it’s pretty much a learned life skill.

I have a lot of lists, especially for my quilting. Because you see, I love to start quilts and I love when quilts are done, but I do not quite make sure that process always fully happens. I have a lot of unfinished objects. I mean, a lot. Like probably over 100+ if I thought really long and hard about it. Which I don’t do because it will drive me to paralysis.

So of course I went downstairs into my sewing space and tried to make some sense of it recently. This was no easy task, but no sewing was happening because it was driving me nuts. So clearly something had to be done. So I headed down there and cleaned up all of the batting scraps (yes, I save them) that someone small who shall remain nameless had strewn about everywhere. I then put away fabric pieces in their color bins and scraps in the scrap baggie. I made sure the cutting table was clear. I made sure the floor was clear. I made sure the ironing board was clear.

I can now cope.

So I then decided to make a list of UFOs that I really should just finish because hey, I need some space. The UFOs I planned to take on my trip to Patsy’s are still on my stairs, so that is where I started. I also cleaned out a drawer in a cabinet and took a bunch of block sets out of there (no, the drawer is not empty – sad but true). So by the time I was done thinking and writing, I had 24 UFOs to finish. Some are farther than others. The farthest anything is is the sandwiched stage. The worst that anything is is not all the blocks are done. So there’s some piecing in there.

Clearly, based on where things are, I like to piece lots and not so much on that other stuff. But things must get done. So this is my goal – get through those 24 in 2010. I’ve seen one blogger who just uses a random number generator to pull out the number of the one she’s working on that month. I plan to do that for 1 UFO and pick the other one. I gotta have some say or I’ll lose it!

So here I am, going happily along working on my UFO’s because anything I can get down before 2010 will make me feel all accomplished, and it hits me.

My SIL has moved and she doesn’t have a quilt. (Her kids do.) OK, can I get that done by 12/13? Yes, I can, through the miracle of Bonnie Hunter. Judy Laquidara over at Patchwork Times is going to do a quilt in an hour quilt that is to DIE for. Can I do that too? Sure, why not? Who will I make it for? Oh, some friends have a child that is in her big girl bed now – she can use it. (Today the parents confessed to me that the moment the baby quilt was too small for the child they stole it and hung it as art in their bedroom. Cracks me up!)

OMG, I’m just hopeless! I’m trying to get rid of 2 dozen UFOs and all I can think about is making 2 more quilts!

Tami is the Crazy Dog Lady

My co-worker Tami is the crazy dog lady. I just want to let you all know that.

The city of Peoria is having budget issues (OK, what city isn’t? Oh, yes, Bloomington , who found $4 million lying around. I want their problem.), and Peoria is threatening to close PAWS, the no-kill animal shelter.

Which prompted Tami to announce that she must single-handedly must save them all.

Tami is the crazy dog lady. Just sayin.

I don't wanna play today

I think that was the motto for the weekend. I really just didn’t want to participate in anything. But of course, sometimes one just must participate. So I did.

I slept for 11 hours both weekend nights. That was really super nice. It also made it incredibly difficult to get up this morning, especially since Ted and Renee were sleeping in, as she has the day off. (Don’t feel sorry for them – they’re getting flu shots today.) But I managed to get myself to work today, so all is not lost.

I was able to meet one friend for homework on Saturday morning and then attend a child’s birthday party where parents were invited. I also made it to group work on Sunday, although I did not do anything. No fear – neither had anyone else. MKT 430 is the most overwhelming class known to man. I’m pretty sure of this fact, so go with me on it.

Today holds 2 meetings, but it also holds finishing chapter 8, writing up a log for chapter 8, and writing 2 ad-hoc memos. Plus reading 2 more chapters, and starting research. And class. Let’s not forget about class tonight.

Less Worse

Another week has past and this one can best be described as the Week from Heck, which is a slight upgrade from last week.

This week’s events:

Good:

Ted comes home today!

Got my last round robin out the door – no more deadline sewing

Got an 87% on the midterm from last week

Ted has amazing friends who helped him when the car broke down

I had to bank by mail to my other account and everything made it and I didn’t get overdrawn

We had a food day for my birthday here at work

My friends came over for study group and brought food (it was during the labyrinthitis)

Bad:

Ted’s car broke down on the way to his conference - $400

I had my marketing midterm, which was 5 essays and 4,000 words

I experienced a not so fun bout of labyrinthitis

I am still really tired

I had stupid people forget their Market Day

For the next 2 weeks, there are some seriously intense projects due for my marketing class. Then we have 4 weeks until anything else is due in that class. So we are just trying to cope. I have no idea what is going on in the other class; I’m waiting for the project manager to tell me the next steps. Any time now buddy would be helpful.

Meanwhile, my sewing area is a disaster. I have not quite figured out how to attack it. I have to quilt 2 panels (one’s started) that will become my winter curtains for my sliding glass doors. I’m thinking of just concentrating on that because the need is coming. I want to get them hung when the clocks change.

Sleeping also sounds like a plan…..

Yes, It Got Worse

OK, for the record, my life just got worse.

In a week that could be described as the Week from Hell by a Thousand Little Slights, it has officially just gotten worse. Let us list the slights, shall we?

It was my birthday and everyone at work forgot
The food day this week was for a wedding
I had a 100 degree fever for 2 days, one of them being my birthday and I had to work
I had a midterm
The midterm had questions with ‘for option d – a and b are correct and option e – all are correct’
My dog died (seriously - she was put down on Wednesday)
I’m out of PTO
I have a Brownie mom who refuses to volunteer
I am exhausted
I got a C on my marketing case

And lastly, the icing on the cake…

The MBA program has gotten rid of the one class I wanted to take – Accountants as ITS Professionals. Totally up my alley. Totally me. Totally justifies my degree to my job. Well, now it’s gone.

And so I have to take another semester to find another elective that will not kill me, like let’s say derivatives or financial planning or international marketing.

Revised graduation date is 05/11. I will still be 40.

There are 2 good things that came out of this process of reviewing the MBA tentative 4 year class schedule. One is that since I really had to review every elective available to determine my options, I have found a class that I think will be meaningful. The other is that my last year will be 1 class at a time, which is a significantly less stressful load.

Excuse me while I go assume the fetal position now.

Oh Thank God

I just got home from class, which means that this post was all ready to be a melancholy one about how I got a C on my individual case and I'm all blue.

Then I check my email here at home. And now this is a drastically different post.

The Chicago Tribune sent me an alert that indicated that an arrest had been made in the slayings of 5 family members here in central IL. This story has gripped this area of IL for the past 2 weeks.

Ever read "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote? Well, if you haven't go google a synopsis of it. I'll wait.

The murders that happened here in a very small town of only a few hundred people rocked us to the core. How could 5 members of a family, 2 parents and 3 kids, be so brutally, violently, horribly murdered? How, in our safe little hamlet, where corn grows and the church only holds 80 people? Where the extended members of the family live on the same block? Why this house, why this family? It has been so shocking, we were advised to lock our doors, which in rural central IL is quite the statement. When we heard of it, "In Cold Blood" were the first words out of our mouths.

Well, it appears that the killer is the son-in-law of the dad in the family. It's a blended family - he's got kids and she's got kids and they have kids together. Well, his oldest child was/is married to this killer. Police have not confirmed it, but that is what the local townsfolk are indicating.

We can all rest a bit easier.

Also, there was one lone survivor. The couple's 3 year old daughter has pulled through. She has been under police guard at a major children's hospital in the area since this happened. She has lost nearly everyone, but we are all pulling for her.

We Closed the Place...

Oh, my, it has been quite I while since I updated this blog of mine. Sorry about that.

Yesterday, Team Girl Power (which is what I call the 4 of us ladies who are trudging our way through grad school and doing absolutely every group project together that we possibly can) delivered an absolutely riveting hour long presentation on the marketing qualms of Amazon.com and their cloud computing offering. If you don’t know what cloud computing is, that’s OK. Neither did one of the group members and half of the class we presented to.

We were so good, class was declared over. We rock! And then went out for dinner.

Anyway, that whole few paragraphs were to point out that I’ve been super-busy with my marketing class. The class has been described as a tidal wave each week. But it’s interesting (however, I have zero retention of the subject whatsoever) class, with a good prof who is actually a band Dad and knows a co-worker of mine who is a band Mom for the same high school band.

But on to quilty things. I did in fact complete Ute’s round robin and I dropped it off at Julie K’s house. I only have 2 more quilty deadlines – something for the 4th Annual Taste of Brookfield @ Your Library and Julie G’s round robin.

The Taste item is an Advent calendar. 12 blocks are completed. 12 are halfway completed. Then they need to be set, sandwiched, quilted and bound. Considering the entire quilt is 2 feet by 3 feet, I hope to complete everything but the handstitching of the binding tonight. I’ll do the handstitching on the way down to St. Louis to enjoy the Rams-Packers game.

Julie’s RR will require some math. Let’s just leave it at that. But I have all the components and I plan to do this quilt in the next 7 days. If I put my nose to the grindstone, it is do-able.

Except I have my MIL and her other 2 grandchildren coming down Saturday night and staying Sunday so Ted and I can go to the Ram-Packers game. Which means I need to clean my house. Not because my MIL is one of these white glove people – heavens no. Not in the least. It’s because since she’s been retired, she’s retired from domestic duty. I have to have all meals prepared and in Tupperwares for heat and eat purposes. DD has volunteered to show Grandma how things are done.

But most importantly, the other 2 grandchildren that will invade my home are coming. They don’t do anything wrong, as much as I know where my shit is and if they so much as breathe on it, I get cranky. And it’s not them. This goes from my side of the family as well, who not only breathe on it, but also make snarky comments about it.

So for my mental health, I have to clean. Boo.

weekend update

Now it’s time to get down to business.

Labor Day weekend is over. It was nice that it was so late this year; it’s a shorter time until my birthday and another week of the school term got accomplished (my term, not hers – she’s on her own). We stayed in all weekend and, more importantly, ate in all weekend. I‘m pretty sure we singlehandedly accomplished the goal of 9 meatless meals after having eggplant parmesan 2 weekends in a row.

I did get some things done, like homework and quilting. I did not get the one cleaning thing down that qualifies as the Item that Makes You Nuts. I was planning on doing it while my MIL swung through on her way back from KS, but that return has been delayed because Grandma Mary wanted Karen to go to the banks, etc with her today. So my MIL will be swinging through on a different day in the next week. Since I have class on Thursday, I may or may not see her.

So now I have to get this annoying task done. I hope to spend 15 minutes on it tonight. I just have to do it; it’s making me crazy. Ted and I made a deal that we would both try to get an Item that Makes You Nuts done before Thanksgiving. This task is a small part of mine.

Sewing-wise, my foot pedal has died. A sad day indeed.

I did get the Christmas potholders done and also one of the RR’s. Another goal for tonight is to get those things ready for the post office. I have 1 more RR to do and a Miche shell for a friend and the donation for the Friends of the Brookfield Public Library’s 4^th Annual Taste of Brookfield @ Your Library. I was going to make a large quilt, but switched to a small wallhanging. Less pressure.

I also worked on some other sewing items that I have broken down into manageable tasks. My goal is to get through the list once a week and over time, many things will get done. I love to piece, but once there are blocks, the process massively slows down. So I’m trying to break the backlog by breaking into tiny pieces.

Here’s my current list:

A small project – Miche shell, the wallhanging and potholders are on this list

1 denim square – using the fake cathedral windows pattern for denim circles, I’m committed (I need to be committed after this one) to a 5 by 5 square each week

Quilt 1 column on my curtain panels

A Round Robin or Swap – only one RR left

Pre-sash 6 blue blocks

So far for this week, I have completed a small projects (the Xmas potholders), did a denim square, and did a RR. I need to pre-sash some blue blocks and quilt a column. I continue to work on the wallhanging because it has a lot of small parts and appliqué and a little each day really does add up. I also hope to start part of the next RR, because it also has a lot of little parts.

Oh, and I should really do some homework. Details. I only have a 14 page case analysis on Intel due next week. Yawn.

Hope

OK, those Gutsy Gals over at (in)courage are asking for posts about Hope. So here goes.

Hope to me is a lot of things. It is having a president from my home county (much less from my state!) who is all about courage and hope. It is interesting to hear how the Kennedy family viewed Obama as having the same effect as JFK did 50 years ago. It is wonderful to hear people who took a moment from their lives in November and/or January and blogged about how they again felt hope.

(But you did not come here to read about how I am a bleeding heart pinko Cook County Democrat who does politics via the Chicago Way. I digress. Sorry.)

Hope for me is blonde. And eight-and-a-half. And in third grade. Yes, this is my child.

Bereaved parents walk among you. We do not have a mark on our foreheads indicating that we are bereaved parents; we usually never even mention this fact. But we all carry this fact in our hearts and souls – the fact that bad things happen to little children.

I myself have been pregnant 4 times. I have suffered one medically uneventful miscarriage, one adverse diagnosis pregnancy with fetal surgery, 6 amnios and a delivery at 29 weeks. He lived 35 minutes. My third pregnancy resulted in my daughter that I mention above. My fourth pregnancy ended in a miscarriage that nearly cost me my life. I was never so happy to turn 32 in my life (it happened the week before).

That above paragraph is something I can recite emotionless to anyone who asks. It’s the medical version; the cliff notes. I can elaborate, usually without incident, when asked. Other times, not so much. People tell me that I really have it together on this topic. I have it no more or less together than anyone else; but I do have hope.

I am lucky. One of my kids made it so I can be with her. She is hope personified, in Polly Pockets and Pokemon, in chocolate and Hannah Montana. She reminds me and my husband daily why we bother with this journey called life. She reminds us that our proper perspective is not on promotions or paychecks, it’s on learning multiplication tables and the names of all the presidents, not just the two (technically, four, I know, but work with me on this) from Illinois. She reminds us to enjoy life in all of its facets and not just on those we enjoy or are comfortable with. Without this kid, I would never be a Brownies leader or the Market Day mom for the school. I certainly would not know what a zhu zhu pet is or find it a very funny toy that is hypoallergenic!

So, Hope, thy name is Renee. Which means reborn. Which is what we were after she arrived, after so much heartache and pain.

Errata: For the courage post, I wrote about my collegiate parking pass. It was not red this year, nor was it shaped like the state of Illinois. This year it’s green and a boring rectangle. (They said they needed the rectangle to put the swipe stripe on a flat edge. Hello? Illinois’ border with Indiana is also a flat edge for a while. Get creative, people!)

Sorry, Grad School is getting in the way

Whoa, it has been a bit since I posted. Can’t you all see that I am now in the throes of grad school?

One theme running around a certain part of blogland is the idea that God may close a door, but He always opens a window. While this is true on the really big important things in life (like MckMama’s almost-house burning down the day BEFORE they were to close), it did happen with the sweet corn. I was gypped at the festival, but a co-worker gave me 4 ears, the farmer gave me 14 more, I had 2 from the previous week and I took 5 more from the exchange table. I ended up freezing 100 ounces of corn, which for our little family of 3 will last me a year. OK, it’s a little thing, but never fear – I will not be wanting for corn this winter.

I have been in squirrel survival mode, stockpiling for the winter. I have put up 3 types of fruit, the corn, and have started to buy a lot of flour, sugar, etc. Last winter, I overbought on the flour and sugar at Christmas, but it was OK because it did get me through a December and January that were either a sheet of ice (Ted literally had to throw me a towline once to get me to walk up the driveway) or bitterly cold (like -22 degrees F – don’t even ask in C). So I’m a bit paranoid about the winter weather being super nasty (more time for quilting!) and making sure we have enough supplies laid in. I’m not sure what I’ plan on stockpiling next, but meat seems like a logical next choice.

Meanwhile back to quilting. I have to get some things done and this 3 day weekend is just the ticket. Besides church, I have nothing else on the agenda, so I should be able to stay in and sew-sew-sew. There are some other things I do want to tackle around the house – things that are driving me nuts and will make my mental health feel better. And sewing is one of them!

Plus I cannot open the package from Nancy for the Miss Mellie swap until I get my deliverables done. And that package is singing its siren song to me from my kitchen table.

Gypped!

The good news was that Ted was able to purchase a Normal Cornbelters hat. They are our new minor league baseball team, due to start play in the spring.

The bad news was that the Sweet Corn Fest was OUT OF CORN.

Grrr....

A Saturday in the Life of a Married Grad Student....

...or alternatively titled, "It's ALL About the Corn."

This weekend is the Sweet Corn Fest where I live. It's like the Hinsdale Sidewalk Sale and Taste of (insert your town name here) all rolled into one. Except the only food product for sale is corn. They steam it in some antique doohickey and people swear by it. Plus they offer a dozen ears for $3 for putting up purposes.

So this morning, as I was making chocolate mousse in the crockpot (I am not kidding) and making fresh bread, Ted ran to the bank and also ran by to buy 3 dozen ears for me to put up. (If you don't know, 'putting up' is the farmer term for preserving food, either via canning or freezing. I only freeze.) Except he went to the drive through corn pickup and no one was there.

So back out we'll go today, in search of corn. And no doubt, we'll have an ear or two, right then and there. After all, it's only 50 cents an ear!

...For These Thy Gifts...

This is our second year with Henry Brockman's CSA. Henry was selected as Illinois' Sustainable Ag Farmer of the Year today; quite the honor. In tonight's box, we have 7 ears of corn, tomatillos, a muskmelon, summer squash, basil, green beans, an eggplant and carrots.

The tomatillos are already made into salsa, using tomatoes from the container tomato plant that I got from Henry's sister Teresa (there are 6 in Henry's family; 4 of them farm). The muskmelon will be prepped tomorrow, and the basil is already made into frozen pesto. I plan on making crockpot stew on Thursday, using many of these things. I'm hoping to make ratatouille with the eggplant.

It was a requirement for me when we moved here (to Godforsaken middle of nowhere) that if we live in the farmland, we eat from the farmland. I'm a localvore about 6 months of the year. And I also got my eggs from the egg CSA. They're Henry's neighbors.

I'm a Wuss and an Avoider...So Here Goes

For the record, I made it through the dentist. A full root canal was required, since when they opened up the tooth, infection ran out. Evidently the infection ran into the root as well, so they did what they had to do. I personally don’t care, as I was sedated. Out cold.

Yes, I am a wuss and get completely sedated for anything more than the 6 month check up. This is how I roll. I have 2 teeth done, #3 is in process and #4 and #5 will be done next spring, which is when I can afford it. This assumes that the last 2 teeth will cooperate with me and not bug me between now and then.

Anyway, now I await the dentist phone call to schedule the follow-up. And to see if it’s really OK that I’m going without antibiotics. I’m OK with no antibiotics, but if I need them to avoid further issues, then by all means, let’s get the show on the road.

We shall see.

Meanwhile on the quilting front…..I have to finish the Mellie swap this weekend without fail. I need to make 120 9-patches by Monday and mail them. I have 80 made. So tonight, I hope to get the swap all ready to be mailed and then handle that tomorrow morning. Too bad I can’t use the Uptown post office due to construction. So off to the main post office I will go.

I also did complete 2 more jeans potholders. This got (rid of) used up 4 log cabin blocks I found and realized they weren’t done because, well, they’re (nasty) homely. So now they’re the fronts and backs of 2 nice potholders that reside in my kitchen.

As you can see, I’m avoiding the QBW topic. Well, let’s just get to it. Today starts Week 34. And because I didn’t make it to Patsy’s my quilty life is all screwed up. And school starts on Monday. So here are my goals, knowing full well that life officially becomes really crazy now.

Mellie swap done
Swap giftie done
Blue quilt squares done (they are being pre-sashed, to use a Dorothy Young term)
Start working on the KitchenAid cover
Quilt curtain panels – at least one

That’s plenty, considering all that needs to be done.

eBay update

The Monopoly chart arrived today. It is for a full scale model of the board. I *cannot* wait to start it.

My friend has a dad who is a woodworker. I would love for Mr. D to make the table for the cross-stitch to go in. That would be fantastic.

Parking Pass Red

There are several blogs that I read. And one that I write. Anyway, some of my newer blogs have been of the ‘mommy blog’ variety, and those usually have been of the bereaved mommy blog variety, because, well, I’m a member of that club. Well, some of these women have come together and made the site (in)courage, which is to nourish the hearts and souls of women. They are more in touch with their faith than I am, so that is what I hope to get out of it. Anyway, head on over to (in)courage now and fill your internal cup until it runneth over.

Meanwhile, they are looking for examples of courage made manifest in the lives of the online women blogging community. I admit that I’m taking the format directly from the blog as far as my courage goes. Please note that this is the last week of summer vacation and classes for me begin Monday the 17th.

I’m nearly thirty-nine and courage is parking pass red. I go to the Office of Parking and Transportation and buy my $77 parking pass for the College of Business. I’m the oldest woman in nearly every class, and the only mom. But I have a goal, which is just a dream with a deadline, of getting my MBA by the time I’m 40. And so I park my minivan in the lot, grab my pink backpack and head into class.

I have a lot of people ask me why I have returned to school. They are expecting the answer of job promotion, greater marketability and the like. My answer is always “for me.” Only one person has ever understood that answer; their response was that it was the best reason of all to go. We are a house of learning. My husband has 2 master’s degrees and I am working on this one, right along with doing Brownies and Market Day, being a wife and a mother to a third grader. Somehow, as a family, we make it happen, around crock pots and drive-thru’s, parent-teacher conferences and business trips.

I do not have any illusions of grandeur about this degree. This is solely for me. What I wanted to do and because I could do it. To learn different things. To enjoy learning at my own pace, and with the benefit of workplace experience. To keep my mind active. (Quilting can do a lot, but not everything.) To show my daughter that learning is life-long.

eBay score

OK, it was a complete impulse purchase, but I saw a picture of a cross-stitcher's project of doing the Monopoly board. It's a retired leaflet and let's just say one should observe the First Amendment on this one.

So $23 later (including shipping), I am the proud owner of someone else's leaflet. I love Monopoly and I can't wait to stitch a board.

Squee!

Messy

My cube at work is so messy, I don’t even know where to begin. (For the record, my quilty life is not a whole lot better, so at least I’m consistent.)

To start with, I am a systems analyst for the accountants at my work. Currently, I am on 3 projects. One project I am leading. This is my Big, Shining Moment. Another 2 are low levels of effort for me. And I backfill on some accounting that needs to be done.

Meanwhile, we have a not so great economy here in Central IL. The rest of the USA has a truly horrible economy. We only have not so great; we’re blessedly recession-insulated. Here at my company, we’re not hiring a lot and we’re trying to move people around to backfill when someone retires. One department here has lost of its people due to promotion and maternity leaves and so someone from our department is moving over there.

So the accounting that I backfill is going to someone else, so I’m now backfilling the work that the departed department member did. So things are coming my way all the time. “Here’s the key to file cabinet.” “Don’t forget to schedule training.” And now my cube looks like a disaster.

Time to dig out.

What happened?

And where were we?

Believe it or not, it has only been a week since my crazy life (please note that my life was crazy BEFORE all of this started…) took an even crazier turn. And so much for going to Patsy’s.

To make a really long story short, I received a phone call at work last Tuesday morning stating that my sister was in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. Well, that pretty much made my day. After meeting Ted for lunch to go over logistical things, I headed up north.

It turns out she did not have that problem, but she did pass out nonetheless and bashed in her teeth and misaligned her jaw. So I spend half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday and Thursday up there, arriving back home on Thursday afternoon with my 12 year old nephew in tow. So much for going to Patsy’s.

I had all my projects stacked up on my basement stairs. I was going to make a lot of tops and also take block sets and make them into pieced backs for the tops, because, well, I have no idea what to do with that many block sets. DD was going to finally get a bed-sized quilt. The Brookfield Public Library’s fundraising quilt was going to have the top done. The swap I am in was going to get all done. Same with RR’s I’m in.

We’re going to Patsy’s next year. C’est la vie.

Somewhere in all of this, my motivation to study for my next insurance exam for my job left the building. So this morning, I checked the testing schedule for this testing window and I can still take the exam in this window, but like a month, and not in 2 weeks. This is a huge load off my mind. I also found the study guide, which is an easier read than the text, and I actually put it in my bag. I should attempt to read it.

Meanwhile, Ted is travelling this week and DD and / or I have something every afternoon / evening this week. Monday, it was karate. Tuesday (today), it was the dentist for DD (her first cavity). Wednesday, it’s swim lessons. Thursday is third grade registration. And Friday, I plan on collapsing in a heap. Seriously. Actually, I hope to shop for the Mellie swap on Friday afternoon.

And I am on the very last strip for the barnyard GFG flower. I am so hoping to show those to you!