10-29-2018 Monday-6:45am

Good Morning!

This past week I had two really good days (head cold-wise) and then it was right back--LOL!  Not quite as bad, but enough to mess up my sleep half the week.  Besides that, though--there's some really good news!  Mom decided she didn't need to stay in Florida for the winter and she wanted to take the next apartment that opened up at Chandler Place.  And she got one!  She'll be moving in after Thanksgiving!!  

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I'm so happy for her.  She will love it there.  There will be something going on every day of the week, which she'll love.  My mother is a social butterfly unlike her happily hermit daughter--LOL!  

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This weekend, though, I actually went to something here.  I know.  Don't fall over.  Besides the big resident meetings for the management takeover, I haven't been to anything since last November.

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Sunday was going to be a Gramma Day and they just so happened to have the first "Family Fun Day" here in the Community Room.  Dagan, Leah, and Liam were planning to come, too, but Leah had a birthday party to go to on Saturday and when she woke up Sunday she could hardly walk (sciatica).  I sure know how your health can change plans and how bad sciatica can be.  Poor Leah.  So Dagan dropped Ian off and Leah rested as much as possible all day long while Dagan tended to Liam.  I hope she feels better today.

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Ian and I had a little while before the Family Fun Day started at 2pm.  Ian was in the cat toy box picking out which toys to have out for Annie...and he came across Karma's old collars.  (Yes, I kept them.)  Next thing I know he was wearing her old leather collar--ROFL!

Looks snug but there was a good inch to spare--just like when Karma wore it--LOL!  So funny to think Ian's neck is the same size as Karma's was.

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I said he was so silly.  So when he wanted to try on Karma's summer collar he wanted me to take a silly picture.

Then he found the collar we ordered for Annie that she hated with a passion--never having had worn one her entire life.

These are the silly things we do.  ;)

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Then at 2pm we went down for the "party" for close to two hours.  I think this is our new activity coordinator (can't remember her name--and when I thought about it I suppose she could also maybe be the office manager).  Anyways--new lady.

Her oldest son (7) was fascinating to Ian.  Not only because he could work the paddle ball but his name was Liam!!

Liam has two younger brothers and you could tell he's a good brother by the way he was with Ian.

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Ian just watched him intently as he worked at that paddle ball.

When we came in we got settled in at an end corner of the kids' craft area tables.  There weren't a lot of people at first.

Football was on...

...but there were no kids for about half an hour.

We opened up one of the activity books and found this cat mask that Ian loved.

But when he found out he could decorate a cookie...forget it!  The cat mask had to wait.

The cookies were pre-made and there were tubes of colored icing and a variety of sprinkles to choose from.

The icing didn't come out easily, but Ian worked at it and didn't want any help.

I took this picture, but he did add a little more icing and some sprinkles.

By the time I thought of another picture of the final product most of it was in his stomach already--LOL!

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People started flocking in.  

More kids around the table.

At one point the room was packed!

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Ian also worked on one of these plastic jar kits you have to put together.  His had a haunted house with orange paper inside.  He added stickers all around the outside of the jar.  I think they glow in the dark.

He had a plate of snacks--bugles, chex mix, cheese, some kind of luncheon meat, and lemonade.  He didn't want raw veggies, he said.  

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People didn't stay long.  They were clearing out by about 3:30pm (supposed to be 2-5).  Ian and I had been working on all the tons of stickers in the activity book where he got the mask.  Nobody else has touched the other activity books...so I asked the new activity director lady if Ian could take the booklet with him he was working on.  She said yes.  Ian showed her his cat mask with great enthusiasm.  She sat down to chat with him for a while--saw that his mask needed some string--went to go find something--came back with ribbon--and cut and attached it so he could wear the mask home.  He wouldn't take it off till we went to watch the movie Ice Age...and then wore it home with Daddy, too.

The sweetest thing of all was when we were leaving he stopped, turned, waved to the whole room, said goodbye and "thank you for the visit".

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We watched half of Ice Age.  Then I made some goulash for dinner (one of the things he loves to eat at Gramma's).  While I made dinner he watched a Mighty Machines episode on YouTube.  We ate--he refused broccoli.  Watched the other half of Ice Age.  Daddy came to pick him up right as the credits were rolling.  We had totally forgotten about bringing the trash out, so Dagan offered to dump it on the way to the car and off they went.

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But then they came back a few minutes later.  Ian didn't think we had a proper goodbye.  He likes to run down to the end of the hallway by the little front door hall and we have to blow kisses and say "goodbye, I love you" many times and we hadn't done that with him going out the other door closer to the dumpster.  Plus he wanted to thank me for his Gramma Day and get more hugs.  :)

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Can't get much better than that.  

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So I hugged the cat-boy and we blew kisses and he was finally on his way home around 7pm.  

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And Gramma was falling asleep in her chair by 9pm--LOL!  I got up and went to bed before 10pm--woke up the last time at 3:15am and couldn't get back to sleep.  My hours have been all goofed up from the plugged head, anyways, but I have been up since then.

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  So it's an earlier than usual blog today.  Annie is confused and waiting for her canned food.  The birds need seed.  Oh--and, sadly, I haven't seen The Girls in about a week.  :(  I haven't done my morning journaling.  My entire morning routine is out of whack--LOL!  So, I am off to actually start my day.  Should be a good one.  Possibly including a nap.  ;)  Till next week.  Have a good one!!  :) :)

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"The more I wonder, the more I love."

Alice Walker

10-22-2018 Monday-12:45pm

Good afternoon!

We've had some pretty fluffy-cloud days 

(taken from left to right).

We had a couple unexpected warmer days (60s-70s!). 

Then right back to jacket weather. 

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By last Wednesday I figured I was done enough in the studio.

Well, I had just a few more things to clear off... 

...but I really needed to get going on the Christmas cards.

So--good "enough".

 I decided that all the various drawers can wait.  Most of them are already organized and just needed tweaking and dusting. 

Except for the first few drawers in the tall cherry cabinet that are a mess--but we do know where to find what we need in there--LOL! 

I passed on the dusting of the top of the wall shelf unit and all the punches on the punch racks.  Good enough for now.  Things to do and time is a'wastin'. 

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The Girls are here a few times a day when it's cold.  There are eight of them and they are full of beans!  Hopping and chasing and being silly.  Such fun to watch.  

I'm glad Ian got to see them on Saturday being all wild and crazy.  :) 

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I finished clearing off stuff in the studio on Thursday and called it a day. 

Feels good. 

Even though that OCD voice inside my head nags and complains about the undusted...the not quite completed task.  I will beat her back to some far quiet corner--reminding her that more dust always comes...there are Christmas cards to make...and I am slow-slow-slow these days...time to move on--LOL!  ;)   

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Across the way--status on the three trees.  The middle one turned and lost all its leaves in the rough winds.  The third one is turning.    

Still on their right to left trajectory. ;)
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Does anyone else always seem to think it strange to see the moon before the sun goes down?  I know...I see it frequently...but it always seems just a little bit wrong. 

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Saturday we had a Gramma Day!  Was a special one because Leah brought Subway for lunch and stayed a while.  We worked on our final decisions for the assembly-line Christmas cards.  Leah made up card samples... 

...while slowpokes Ian and I were still eating lunch. 

I told Ian that I needed to remember to take some pictures when he comes for Gramma Days.  He's at this age of trying to gross you out with chewed food... 

...and making funny faces...

...but I caught him looking himself, too--LOL! 

While he ate lunch he watched a narrowboater and another pottery video on youtube.  We had a quiet day after Mama left.  I showed him more of the pottery Mama had made long before he was born.  Even switched up the candy bowl for the heck of it to another gorgeous bowl she made.  (Easier for little hands to dig through.) 

We're pretty sure she went two different years.  (Neither of us has the best memory--LOL!)  You can kind of tell by the roughness and thickness of some of them compared to the next batch.  I have covered a lot of the bottoms with felt so we can't check the dates.  All the better ones with good bottoms say 2007.
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I use a lot of them for pen cups and water bowls for painting. 

These were quite the invention! 

You know how with acrylics it is often hard to get the paint out of the bristles? 

Well, Leah made these big water pots with all those rough chunks on the bottoms to rub the brush on! 

I love the top edges carved to hold your brushes, too!  Leah is so clever!

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Here's some more pen holders and cat dishes.  

And this treasured item!!!  She made this special for me (and wrote to me on the bottom). 

It's a beautiful rice bowl! 

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Then Ian wanted to get out the punches, of course.  This time Gramma got some special gifts--so I taped them on to my laptop with washi tape so I will see them every day.  :) 

He is punching up some strips of painted paper of mine.  It is such fun to do mark-making!
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The subway lunch came with decals for Ian.  (Zootopia, but he hasn't seen that movie.)  Ian put them on the patio door and...well, all over the place.  We were talking about how Liam might get a hold of them and put them in his mouth, as toddlers do.  We decided to gather them all together and put them on the door so he wouldn't forget them when he left.  Ian was showing me how high he could put them.  I took pictures to show Mama because we weren't sure she'd let him bring them home. 

Ian was right--Mama said yes.  :)

Ian thought I should take videos, too, on Gramma Days.  
I think so, too.

Then we settled in to watch Maru the cat and My Self Reliance till it was time to go home for dinner.

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I was so tired from the visit and from three weeks of the head cold...I slept 12 hours!!  And slept well!  Did again last night--about 8 hours.  I hate to jinx myself, but it feels like I might be over the hump--tada!  (knock on wood)  The head is less stuffed, headache is less, breathing is better...maybe getting over this annoying, sleep-stealing cold?  Hope so.  :) :) :)
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Yesterday I worked all day (yes I am slower than molasses in January) on starting the new bullet journal.  My hands weren't working great when I started out, but they warmed up a bit.  Did a simple future log and that's it for any extra lists.

Going to put all other lists in separate notebooks I'll keep in my big turquoise travelers notebook style cover.  So I need to copy all the lists/collections into a nice new travelers notebook, too.  If you've forgotten my fancy leather cover, I'll show you when I switch over in November to the new bullet journal.
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Got November calendar set up.

The tracker page and the goals & correspondence page are nearly completed.

And almost done with the weekly spreads.

So many lines to draw.  Kind of a fun thing to do while I watch something on TV that I don't have to pay a lot of attention to or while listening to an audio book.  I had nearly forgotten I needed to get November completely ready before I can work on cards.  I actually have all of next year roughed in the bullet to work on whenever I feel like listening to audio books.  ;)
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Well, that's it from here.  Goodness!  That's a lot of photos this week.  But one big weekly post works better for me lately so I hope you don't mind.
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Today it's a balmy 51 degrees.  The sun is shining.  I can usually breathe out of one nostril.  I barely have a headache.  I feel back to a normal pain level.  Life is good!  Not that I didn't appreciate each of my head cold days...but life is especially good today.  ;) 
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Till next week, my friends!!
Count your blessings!!  :) :) 
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"When the bridge is gone, the narrowest plank becomes precious."
Hungarian proverb