Never a Dull moment....

Well, it's been an interesting two days. All I've wanted to do was sew. Granted I knew there would be work to contend with, but I knew that with no more overtime being allowed (thank goodness!), I'd be getting out at around 12-1pm on Friday....and I had plans...........
1. Go home and have a quiet cup of tea and lunch (ALL BY MYSELF)...didn't happen.
2. Go through a couple of boxes of stuff from my late aunt and send things to people who sent them to her... didn't happen.
3. Sew (I have a lasagna quilt in the machine on the dining room table, still waiting to have me play with... didn't happen.
4. Get ready to go to the MGM Grand theater at Foxwoods Casino to see America's Got Talent (with my hubby),... okay, that DID happen, but only after my daughter called me at work to see what time I could pick up her son, Malakai from the sitters....(damn!)...
Well, there went my afternoon.
And the fact that my hubby ran out of work early and was home when I got home at 1:30pm.... well, we could have gone down to the casino early and played the penny slots. Oh well....

We did have a blast at the theater and did get some shots of some of the contestants on tour (not great since I took them with my cell phone and downloaded them...). I also found out some interesting info regarding the show. Those who don't get first place really get no monetary compensation other than $1000 a week while on tour (5 wks), but I never found out if that was per person or per act. Hmmm. I never asked details, it was just told to me by Taylor Matthews when I told him I hoped the top ten got some kind of monetary compensation for being in the top ten. I got a few signatures of Anna and Patrik (ballroom dancers, 12 yrs old), a few members of Fighting Gravity, Jeremy (bike trick act), Taylor Matthews (songwriter and singer), but I really wished I'd seen Michael Grimm (FABULOUS singer) and Michael Grasso (magician)...oh well.

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Okay, Saturday came....
Now, Lee went to work (an occasional thing) early- 6:30am- and when I woke up (7:48am), I noticed the back door opened....I looked out and saw Lee's car gone, but realized == NO MALAKAI! My grandson was nowhere to be found!! I woke up his mom, who usually has him in her bed. We looked outside, and called him. I suggested going next door, where his newly acquired friend, Alex (8 yrs old) lives. They have a slider onto a porch, but their back door was locked, so I didn't think he was there. After double checking all the possible places he might be (garage, back yard, Alex's backyard, Calling Alex's house by phone, banging on their doors- they were asleep, looking up or down the street, calling him, repeatedly, ... my daughter resigned herself to call the police. She just got off the phone calling work to say her son was missing and she couldn't find him and wouldn't be in until she did, and he came walking in the back door with Alex's Hess tanker truck in his hands....!! She wanted to kill him! And just seconds after, the two police cars came flying to a stop in front of the house. We rushed out and told them he just showed up, saying he'd been at Alex's house playing in Alex's bedroom (unbeknownst to any of them as they were all sleeping-someone left the back door unlocked, but Malakai probably locked it after going in, "so mommy wouldn't come in after him to take him home" --this is my guess). He said he went in through the "curtain", we realized that he called their screen slider door  'the curtain' and was playing in Alex's room when Alex woke up and asked him what he was doing in his room, and did Malakai's mom know he was there, (Yup, says Malakai). We found this out after Alex woke up and brought Malakai's fleece jacket over. Apparently, Julie had plopped him into bed fully dressed, since he'd fallen asleep in his clothes...but he didn't have his shoes on, just socks.
Once we took the truck back to Alex's (over major protest by Kai!!-oh well), and tried to tell him how scarry it was for my and his mom, and how it was wrong to go into someone's house without them knowing it or mommy knowing it (I don't think he got that part), and DEFINITELY wrong to take someone's toys home, just because you want it!!!, I heard my daughter say ...something about being grounded for life, and I wanted to laugh (since that's what I used to say to her often...not that she got that either (and she was a teenager). I'm not sure what this feels like to have it happening to her like it happened to me, but I hope she just lets this go lightly, since he's only 4 and he won't understand it like we adults do.
She went off to work and our day continued....
Until my hubby came home and told me he forgot to set the brakes on a used car at  work and he drove it into the garage door and broke some plate glass windows in the door. He and the owner will talk on Monday, but he's upset. He's never done this in 19 yrs of being a auto technician. He's very upset and I feel so bad for him. He's only been with this place for a few months, although I think the owner really likes his work so far. Well, until today. Poor guy...
I hope I sew tomorrow....(remember, .. I really wanted to sew sometime this weekend.)

Sewing weekend...? This is it!

I think I'm gonna set up my sewing machine in the dining room... ON the table.... and put a project in the seat of the chair next to it. THEN I'll be ready to just sit and sew.

What will I be working on? I've gotten back in the habit of checking the Heartstring quilt group to get my juices flowing and it's working. I'll put out a lasagna quilt that our church group (Peace by Piece Quilters) has started - the strips are sewn, end to end. Now for the layering.

And there is the envelope blocks that are pinned in columns, but not sewn. That could be a good job. I could even do that by hand at work, but I like the sturdiness of the machine sewing. I want to make one of these blocks that are actually an envelope and use it as the label for the back and put the washing instructions in the envelope. I'd like to call this ..."PS I love you". Maybe I'll have to applique a heart somewhere....

Good start, don't you think?

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Update: I DID get to sew... even if it was in-between commercials of the Amazing Race and for a little while in the afternoon on Sunday! I have the lasagna quilt strips sewn together and the layers have started. It's been folded in half twice so far...Let's see if I can get any more done before the very busy weekend! (ps. it's not a good idea to leave your sewing machine in the dining room for too long, even with the cover on it. I found it with a bunch of fabric crunched up behind it, ... my 4 yr old granson was 'sewing, Gramma'. Good thing I taught him to sew correctly. still......

An aside...

I thought I would sew today... I have a lasagna quilt I'd like to put together... and I still may. However, I absent-mindedly went through a box in the den that was tucked under a table (off to the side) as my hubby and I were watching a movie on the computer.

This box was just 'papers' which I always seem to have around to 'go through'...LOL I never want to throw out stuff unless I at least look through it, but there's the rub. They seem to pile up. Those who know and love me know I always have a few 'piles' to go through. Someday, I'll unclutter my life.

This box, come to find out.... was things from my Aunt Jessie-Jean's house when we cleaned out her stuff after her death in 2005. ... or was it 2004?

Anyway, I found a newspaper of the 1938 Flood of Hartford, CT...and her last evaluation and 'fight' with administration at her long-time employers, The Institute of Living. Interesting read. Quite a few photos and negatives (threw out the ones with no people in it, and I'll send some things to my siblings that they must have sent her... And I also found a framed poem by her Aunt Jessie (Russell), entitled, "Devotion". She apparently used the pen name, Jessica English. I'll send this to my cousin Dinah Coleman, since this Jessie is HER grandmother.

Devotion

Little son o'mine with eyes of blue

And the smooth, soft hair of brownish hue,

You cannot guess how great your power

To make me love you more each hour!

Let other ladies have their joys

In silken gowns and puppet toys,

And pity me who needs must stay

At home and care for you each day.

How can they sense a mother's bliss

The wonder-joy of your sweet kiss?

How can they know when the day has fled,

The fun of tucking you (in) bed?

Your rosy lips, your chubby fists

They see them not as joys they've missed;

So pitying them as they do me,

I turn to kiss your dimpled knee.

Jessica English