SWEET BABOO TWO

This is my newest grandbaby.  He's 18 weeks old and he weighs 9 oz.  I think he is beautiful.  His big brother was Sweet Baboo One and he will be 9 years old when this one is born.  Harrison is so excited that the baby is a boy.  He is going to teach him how to be a goalie in ice hockey, just like he is.  Harrison is our oldest grandchild and this little one will be our youngest.  Three boys and two girls.  We are blessed, and very, very thankful.

ANOTHER ETSY OBJECT

I'm really determined to get some things on Etsy, so I've been trying to add something new everyday.  This is what I put on tonight.  You can see it here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/kybeadmaker.  While making beads tonight I burned the  palm of my hand, where my thumb is.  YOWZERS that hurt.  I am now soaking my hand in a combo of Aloe and ice water.  Usually works for me.  At least I didn't stick my hand directly in the flame this time.  I laid it down on a graphite marver that I had been using on a hot bead for about 20 min.....did I mention that graphite is a wonderful conductor of heat?

BETTER NEWS

I started making some beads again.  I'm putting things in my Etsy shop for now.   Stress can really beat the heck out of a person, so I'm taking is slowly.  I'm going to a counselor too.  I just have to find a way to deal with all of this sadness that seems to surround me and my entire family. My son told me the other day that he still wakes up in the morning and can't believe that it happened.  Honestly, I can't either.  I think we will all be better when the divorce is final, but of course for the children that is when reality begins to set in.  It is what it is, but it's still the second saddest thing in my whole life.

Here are some pictures of what I put in my Etsy shop......trying to end on a good note here.  Our family is strong, in the end we will be okay.

SOMETHING HAPPY

This is our oldest grandchild, Harrison.  He's eight.  This is him holding his cousin, our youngest grandchild, Cassidy, who is now three.

                                                                                   



Harrison has been asking for a sibling for a long, long time, but it seemed like it was not to be. Several weeks ago HB and I got a bouquet of flowers delivered.  It was on a Friday afternoon and it was no one's birthday or anniversary or any other day of importance.  I opened the card and it said:


"Dear Happy and Pop,
I am going to be a Big Brother!
Love, Harrison

WOW!!  Harrison is overjoyed, so are his grandparents!

LIFE'S LESSONS

I keep finding theses quotes I just love, and for right now they make me feel better.  I am seeing my family come together during this rough time and that is a good thing.  We are  a strong support system for each other and care very much how the others feel.  I think it's during the worst of life's experiences that we often find out what we are really made of.  I am so proud of my middle child.

                                                    

QUOTE TO THINK ABOUT

I read this quote of FB tonight.  I don't know who wrote it, but I like it.  Wait, I found out who wrote it.  CHARLES M. BLOW


One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do

great harm. The absence of empathy and

understanding are sufficient."

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

I found this on my friends facebook page.
I love it.

THE NOSE KNOWS

and mine knows that it is really, really stopped up.  Remember when I fell over the curb at Starbucks this winter?  After that I had a period of time when I couldn't smell or taste things.  This sent me to an ENT who stuck that long tube up my nose and told me I had a deviated septum.  Well, last Wed I had the surgery to straighten my septum and get rid of excessive tissue in my nose. It has not been fun.  First of all I can't breathe through my nose..... at all, therefore I can't taste anything.......again. Or smell. Two things I like doing a lot.  Secondly, I have to do this gross nasal wash with saline twice a day, for TWO weeks!!  I'm NOT explaining it...the term nasal irrigation should be explanation enough.  It is not pretty. I am not allowed to blow my nose, lift anything heavy, bend over to get things off the floor, and should refrain from sneezing, if at all possible.  If I do have to sneeze, I am to do it with my mouth open, only.  How do you think that goes over in a grocery store?

I'm hoping I will be glad I had this done, but right now the antibiotic they have me on makes me nauseated all day long.  So let me sum this up.  A simple little Starbucks stop  caused me to injure myself enough that I had to have long tubes stuck up in my nose, followed by surgery to fix my nose, which lead to unpleasant  treatments involving fluids running into my nose, also causing restrictions on how I am able to use my own body, to clean my house, or rid it of foreign objects, like pollens that must be ejected from said body immediately........AND finally, I am a terribly allergic person who is now a social outcast because I must sneeze with my mouth wide open.  When people look at me they don't know about my nose, it looks fine.  So, now I'm just a weird old lady who sneezes with her mouth open..........all because I wanted a mocha frappacino on a rainy winter day, and forgot that there was a cement curb to step over on my way back to the car.  It could happen to anyone...right?

IT'S BEEN A BUSY MONTH

HB has been in the hospital twice since I blogged last.  His disease affects his lungs and he has difficulty breathing.  In case anyone is interested his disease is antiphospholipid syndrome.  It's a clotting disorder.  His blood clots too easily.  While it's not uncommon to carry the marker for the disease only 4-5% of the population in the world actually has the disease.  I wonder if I've blogged about this before?  It's night and I'm too lazy to go through all my posts, so if I have, just skim on past this.  Anyhow, he's been feeling kind of punk so we've been spending lots of time at Dr's offices etc.  He has home oxygen and is hooked up to an oxygen concentrator during the day with this 50 foot tube he drags behind.  One of us is going to trip over it and do some serious damage to ourselves.  One thing is certain...it's never dull at our house.
We did go to a wedding in Indianapolis last weekend.  It was family and I made Hank take it easy.  We went to Nordstrom's while we were there.  Well actually I went to Nordstrom's while Hank and his brother, who is a pulmonologist sat in the mall.  My sister in law went to some other stores.  OMG I love Nordstroms.  In 15 min. I bought perfume, a pair of shoes and a cool top.  Everything I saw I loved!  Their shoe department was gigantic....and the shoes were AWESOME !!!!!!!!
Here's a picture  Cute huh?  It's canvas.  I love shoes and purses, way too much :)  Okay enough rambling.  I just wanted you to know I am still around.  Hope everyone is having a great summer.

AGING

This week I read an article in the paper.  I can't even remember what it was about, probably because midway through I received shocking information.  I am elderly...that's right, me, a person who still listens to country music, loves make up and clothes, has her hair highlighted, and thinks of herself as middle aged is ELDERLY.  I do remember that the article referred to an elderly 68 year old man who had been in an accident.  I am 68 and I have never, not once thought of myself as elderly, but obviously other people do.  I wonder what makes people decide when we are elderly?  Is it our age, or the way we look or dress?  What age group considers 68 year old people elderly?  Are they teenagers, thirty somethings?  I remember when I was young I thought my grandmothers were old and they were in their sixties, but they kind of acted old.  They dressed matronly, they were kind of serious, but their lives were a lot harder than mine is.
I'm not loving this getting older thing, but it is what it is. I try really hard to stay up with things...thanks to my kids who keep me technically informed.  I can accept the fact that I'm getting older, I'll be 70 in 2 years.......but journalists and everyone else, don't rub it in. Okay?  You can say I'm aging, you can say my age, just don't be calling me elderly. It  makes me kind of cranky.

LITTLE PROGRESS ON SOME THINGS

Well, I haven't started the quilt yet, even though my intentions were good.  I did, however, clean my studio.  Wow was that a job!  When you are a beadmaker there is just a certain amount of mess involved.  Little pieces of glass pop off the rods as you are heating them.  The kiln wash that you put on the mandrels to keep the glass from sticking to them seems to flake off everywhere.  Then there is the whole frit thing.  Frits are ground up pieces of glass that are about the size of coarse salt.  It is used to decorate the beads. Beads are often rolled in frit and then it is melted into the glass.  When you pour frit out into a small container to be used  on your workbench it seems to want to go everywhere.  It spills, it overflows, and never stays where you put it. Same with the enamels, which require careful use because they are a powdered form of glass, and very bad for the lungs.  You need to wear a respirator when working with enamels.  That makes you feel awkward in the first place,  Then the enamels tend to stay in clumps,. so when you pour them, they all decide to come out of the jar at once.
I will be the first to admit that I'm not a neat beadmaker, but I do clean off my workbench every night when I am done for the day.  However the stuff on the floor is left to accumulate...and it does.  So I spent a good 5 days cleaning everything up.  This included my jewelry making table where hundreds of seed beads waited to be returned to their original containers.  I nixed that idea and introduced them to the waste basket.  Sometimes I am just ruthless :).....maybe lazy would be a better term.   I did get some beads made this week and right now these beads are on ebay.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  I'm on Prednisone again so I'm hoping to get all my dresser drawers and closets cleaned out this week!.......and a slew of beads made!

NEW THINGS

I have some new things on Etsy     http://www.etsy.com/shop/kybeadmaker   in case anyone is interested,  Here are a couple of pics:

And because I don't think I have enough projects going I decided to make a quilt out of these fabrics....aren't they yummy?

Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day.....sigh.

I THINK I'M ADDICTED.....

to my computer.  I had eye surgery this month, actually twice this month.  I guess I should start at the beginning.  I had cataract surgery last year.  Afterwards both eyelids began to droop.  It's called ptosis for those of you who want to know.  As time went on I could hardly see, especially at night.  So my doctor told me he could lift my eyelids and here's the best part...Medicare would pay for it!!  There were several "worst parts" that went along with the surgery though.  First, he did my eyes one at a time, two weeks a part. The second thing is that he does it under a local anesthetic......which means shots in your eyelids and eyebrows....yikes!!!  The reason for this is the doc wants you to be able to open your eyes so he can see how your eyelid looks as he is shaping it.  Once he got my lid the way he wanted it he did give me some anesthetic.  The first part was just mildly painful and my eyes are more open now, so I think it was worth it.

The only way I have been able to entertain myself is on my computer.  I can't make beads because my vision is blurry in the most recently done eye...a flame and no depth perception is a dangerous thing!  So I know everything about every Hollywood starlet who's name I don't even recognize.  I know what to do if your iPhone will not get out of headphone mode. I have seen most of Europe from Google Earth.  I have looked at paint chips for my living room walls, I know which beaches have the best sand, and which city has the most expensive houses.  I am bored to tears!  Tomorrow I get my stitches out and hopefully begin a normal life.  I look forward to spending a meaningful day with my torch !!

A LONG LONG TIME

Today Honey Bunny and I have been married 43 years.....now that's a lot of years! We've had good times and bad, but we've enjoyed the hell out of those good days and plowed through the gray ones, ......and here we are, still hanging on.  I guess we're gonna make it :)

DERBY WEEKEND

If you live in or around Louisville, Ky then you understand about the Derby.  It is THE weekend of the year.  HB and I went to  the Oaks (on Friday) and the Derby (on Saturday) about 10 years ago.  It's one of those things that everyone should do once in their life, but for me once was enough.  Now if you have fantastic seats and an ideal view of the track you might be inclined to go again, but our seats were not so great and our view of the track was pretty poor.  If it hadn't been for the TV screen, we would have been clueless as to where the horses were on the track.  However, it was a fun weekend because we were with good friends and our daughter and her husband, the mint juleps flowed freely, and we had some winners.
This year our son and his wife decided to go to the Oaks and the Derby and we offered to be nighttime babysitters for the grandkids.  They stayed at their house during the day with a sitter and we picked them up about 6pm to spend the night with us.  I promised them we would make cupcakes the first night........ O.M.G.  Three little ones, a box of cake mix, two cans of frosting, some cupcake liners and sprinkles...that's all it took to completely destroy my kitchen in exactly 57 minutes...but boy did they have fun!! Honestly I just let them do what they wanted.  I did end up spending about 5 min. picking egg shell out of the mix, since the littlest one insisted on cracking one of the eggs.  Getting the cake mixture into the cupcake tins was another adventure since for some, eye-hand control is not yet highly developed.  I might be talking about the one who put the egg, shell and all, into the batter :)
After the cupcakes were done and cooled I put one knife in the chocolate and one knife in the vanilla frosting and turned my back for a nano second.  In that time a fight ensued and the knives had been switched at least three times.  If there had been no label on the front of the cans I would not have known which frosting was which.  Finally we got the cupcakes frosted, in a kind of marbleized color. Then came the very worst part...... the addition of the sprinkles!  Who knew?  These children did not just shake on a few decorative sprinkles, they took the tops off of all the bottles and added layers of sprinkles! Below are some pictures of our adventure.  It probably took me as long to clean up the kitchen as it did to make the cupcakes, but I hope in their young minds we created some good memories.  I have some great memories of my grandmothers and I tell my grandchildren about things I did with them.  I hope someday they will tell their children about me.

A DISCOVERY

Okay, I found out what I need to be productive and bring my bead fairy back......very large doses of Prednisone.  I have been sick over a week now with bronchitis and it made my asthma kick in so the Dr. put me on Pred.  I think I've discussed my love/hate relationship with Prednisone before, so you'll have to forgive me if I repeat myself, I am old you know.  Anyhow, this time I am on Pred  60mg for 5 days.  O.M.G. I am a wizard!!  None of my joints hurt.  I can zip around the house like a well oiled machine.  I require little sleep  and I have ENERGY!!  It is heaven on earth, but also sad because it will be over so soon.

Meantime I am cleaning out closets and drawers and making beads.  My daughter, Sara, lives at a community called Day Spring and we are having our annual fund raiser in May.  It's a Ball and this year has a Kentucky Derby theme.  I am selling my beads in jewelry form at the event to raise money.  Here's a picture of a necklace I made yesterday for the Ball.  Now I have to go make some more beads while the Pred is still working :) If you are so inclined to support things online you might want to read about Day Spring.  Here is the link. http://www.dayspringky.org/  You can buy a ticket for the 15,000 raffle for just $10.00 and your chances of winning are a lot better than the lottery....just sayin'   Look for the second ticket down on the right-hand side of the opening page, click it, pay by credit card and you are IN to WIN...sorry, got carried away....I tell you, it's the Prednisone.  I can't help myself.  I am wired!....but if you do buy a ticket let me know, so when the winner is announced I will know if it's one of my people that won.  Now wouldn't that be cool???

A BORING LIFE

I'm not complaining about it, but really who wants to read about it?  I go to bed, get up, run errands, cook meals, go to the grocery, bank etc, watch grandchildren, try to make beads......repeat, rinse.  Looking back I think our lives go through cycles.  There are times of intense activity, when you don't have time to gather your wits, and then times of quiet  when your life settles into a comfortable routine.  One thing I've learned though, just when you start to feel normal with either life style something big comes along and pulls that rug out from under you, so I've kind of been waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I love the time with the grandchildren, but seriously, I forgot how busy they are! I've been fighting bronchitis all week so my energy level is low to begin with, but one smile from those little faces and I feel well again.  All in all life is good!

CATCHING UP

Well, the bead show was pretty much a bust, which was kind of sad.  There are 8 of us who have been doing this show for 6-8 years now and over time we've seen our sales go down.  We all do different things and it used to be a great show for us, but the popularity of making lampwork beads increased.  Now we have imported beads, mostly from China, not annealed, and cheap.  To the uneducated public those beads seem like a great deal and the true beadmaker's beads languish at the side.  Some of the beads I make take 1 1/2 hours to complete before they go into the kiln.  Beads like this one.  It has flowers on both sides.  It's a long slow process, one I love doing, but not for $25.00.  So, now I ponder where I go from here.  I do have my beads in a gallery and they do well there, but the owner has some illness in her family and is closing at least part time.  For now I will just think about it.

UPDATE

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still kicking.  I have a show Sunday and I am in my usual panic mode.  I work best that way.  HB is off to St Louis to stay with grandson #1, which is a good thing because I can work and sleep when I want.  I do this every show although I promise myself each time that next time I will be more organized.  I just think I work better under pressure.  I will try to post some pictures before the show.  Have a great week everyone.  Oh wait.  Here is a necklace I made.

RELIVING MY PAST....

some thirty years later.  The past two days HB and I have been talking care of three of the grandchildren during the day while mom is on a business trip and dad is working.  We arrive at their home around 7am and the race is on.  The dad( our son, has lunch boxes, backpacks, milk money, and important papers all in order) From 7 until 8:30 we awaken a 2 1/2, 5, and 6 yr old, feed them, oversee dressing, supervise teeth brushing, tame unruly hair, find shoes, and search for a missing blankie.  HB takes the oldest to the bus stop while I put the finishing touches on the younger ones.  By the time we drop the little ones off at preschool at 9 am we are certain we have put in a full day's work :)  Two pm comes before we know it and we are back at their house waiting for big sister to get home from school and dad to come home from work.  Watching the children's interaction is really interesting.  Today there was a 30 min. altercation concerning three piggy banks and a variety of accusations about who took money from who's bank.  There were tears, some yelling, and many unknowns.  The 5 year old was the most upset, just sure that his oldest sister had taken money out of his bank.......and then the sweetest thing happened.  The littlest one said, "Don't cry, Buddy, I'll give you some of my money" and upstairs they went and she put some of her money in his bank......all was right with the world. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all settle things this easily?

I would not trade these days or this time for anything in the world, even though by nighttime I am feeling pretty worn out...it's a happy tired.  I feel so lucky.

INSPIRATION

Just in case no one knows yet, my bead mojo is gone.  She has disappeared, left the country, found another soul mate.  Who knows?  All I know is that I miss her and wish she would come home.  In the mean time I occupy my time exploring the Internet trying to find inspiration.  I think I hit the jackpot.  Look at what I found last week,  The Sewing Attic.  I fell in love with the blanket she crocheted so I wrote to her and she sent me the pattern.  Her website is just full of color!  Besides crocheting she is also a quilter and a photographer and I spent a good two hours on her site.  Here is the yarn I bought for my blanket.  I'm hoping it will inspire me. So far I have made 3 squares.....she said it took her a year to make the blanket......yikes !

I CAN'T SMELL

About a month ago I noticed that I couldn't smell anything.  When we got our new car I couldn't smell that new car smell.....and seriously, we only get a new car every 10 years so I wanted to enjoy that new car smell!  Then my DIL gave me some roses for my birthday and there was no smell to them for me, although everyone else thought they smelled wonderful.  I made a pot roast for dinner one night....nothing.  Now I have a nose that could smell our dryer burning in the basement from the second floor in the house.  I could smell Reese's peanut butter cups being chewed in a closed mouth and don't ever think that you could hide any kind of chocolate from me because my nose WOULD find it.  Unfortunately my nose also finds molds, budding trees, and ragweed.  These items do not make it happy. I love smells....the ocean, puppy breath, chocolate cake in the oven, my grand children's clean heads, fingernail polish,  fresh mint, potato chips when you first open the bag, coffee brewing,...I could go on and on....but as you can probably tell, smelling is kind of important to me.  So today I went to the nose doctor.
He said I have a very inflamed nose.  He determined this by sticking this long black stick up my nose and then looking through a camera at the other end.  When I first saw the stick it looked like some form of torture, but in reality it didn't hurt as much as I anticipated. I kind of thought it was a piece of cake until he told me that he couldn't get the tube in far enough because of the swelling...yikes!  So he ordered a bunch of meds to reduce the swelling and then I go back in three weeks, so he can explore my sinus cavities, the higher regions of my nasal passages, and who knows what else.  I am thrilled at the prospect :(
One of the drugs he ordered to clear the inflammation is Prednisone...for three weeks, starting with 40mg a day for a week.  I have a love/ hate relationship with Pred.  It makes my aching joints feel wonderful.  My neck no longer hurts and my knees don't complain as I walk along.  I have energy, too much energy.  I can't sleep and I become a cleaning machine.  There is no job I will not tackle...clean the oven, clean out the frig, clean closets and drawers, organize EVERYTHING...but my house could use it so I guess this all goes under the love part.
Now for the hate part.  I can't sleep.. It wires me.  I am always hungry and therefore always eating.  It is a shaky "get something in your mouth right now" kind of hunger.  It isn't pretty.  Neither are the pounds I gain while on Pred.  It makes me grouchy........or maybe grouchier.  Well, sometimes I just feel like my skin is going to come off...that's a little unnerving.  I have a bead show in 6 weeks, if I remember correctly it messes with my creativity too and I haven't seen the beadfairy for over three months now.  Things aren't looking too good for me are they? BUT if I get my smeller back, It will be worth it.

OMG, I AM OLD

Today is day three of watching my three youngest grandchildren.  They are 6, 5 and 2 1/2 and busy, busy, busy. The youngest, a girl spilled her drink a total of 4 times just today before I could get to Target for some sippy cups.  Sometimes the spills were OJ,... very sticky.  They call me Happy and most of the time I am, until today when I found a melted Popsicle on my bedside table.  Popsicle's are to be eaten in the kitchen or in the room with hardwood floors, not in Happy's bedroom.  Not only was the Popsicle a melted mess of goo, it's essence had been absorbed by the oldest GrD's Junie B Jones' new book.  Oldest GrD was not amused, neither was Happy. Youngest GrD did not see the error of her ways, but she is just 2 and 1/2 as she will proudly tell you This mishap required an immediate trip to Barnes and Noble to replace said book...and guess what? (Junie B says guess what a lot) There were other Junie B  books there that were calling GrD's name...and of course we couldn't leave without a book for the other two, even the Popsicle Offender.

I am so loving the time with them, but oh am I old.  I am in denial that I will be 68 this Wed.  I awake in the morning and my joints are very unhappy and they complain when I try to move them.  I have to spend a lot of time stretching and convincing my body that it really does want to get up.  Then I have to take two Tylenol (On blood thinners so no Motrin for me) and a really hot shower.  With the grandchildren here things don't necessarily go in that order :).  I wouldn't trade it for anything though.  This is a little bit of heaven that not all grandparents get.

Oh dear......guess what we just found that SHE (she being the Popsicle offender, of course)
 did?  Here's a picture and it's permanent marker, in case you are wondering.  She found it in a desk drawer.  Clever isn't she?  Now what was I saying about not trading them?

But look at that face  

                                                                                                             

THIS IS A GOOD, GOOD DAY

I've been waiting for this day for a long time.  I wondered if it would ever happen.  There was talk about it several years ago, but plans changed.  I've been holding my breath for the last several months, even when he started his own company and took on a project up here, even when they sold their house in Georgia, I still wouldn't let myself believe it.  Then they rented a house here in Louisville....and tomorrow(well, actually today, since I am writing this after midnight) the moving truck is coming to their house in Georgia.  By tonight I should have three of my grandchildren in my house as they wait for their furniture to arrive.  My son, his wife and their children are actually moving to Louisville.  Since I retired and HB has been sick I have really felt like I haven't had a whole lot of purpose in life.  I think that's going to change and I am so looking forward to it.  There will be baseball games, horseback riding lessons, ballet, and just pick ups from preschool and kindergarten.  I need to be needed again.  I want to read stories and play games and explore unknown places.  I want to do the things with my grandchildren that I never seemed to have the time to do with my children.  I want our grandson from St Louis to come spend time with his cousins.  HB and I love being with all of them.  I think this is going to be a real change in our lives, but a good change.  I am smiling as I am writing this.

OH THE PAIN

So yesterday HB and I were out running some errands on a cold and rainy day.  I asked him to stop at Starbucks before we went home and while I ran in he was reading the car manual of the "car that confuses us."  I was feeling good as I left the store.  Meredith (yes, I know their names) had made me an extra thick mocha frapp and it was so big she had to put a dome lid on it.  I was admiring it's beauty as I left the store.  This caused me to forget that there was a cement curb that I needed to step OVER on my way to the car.  BAM, in a nano second I did a perfect face plant.  If it had been an Olympic event I would have received 10's across the board.  My nose even hit exactly on center as it was pushed back into my head.  As I picked my head up, the first thing I saw was my beautiful frappacino spread in a fan like design across the blacktop in front of me...and then the pain struck.  My nose and my right knee were on fire and I was lying in a puddle of cold, cold water.  I could not get up.  I banged on the side of the car.....nothing.  I banged again, still nothing.  I managed to get to my knees and pull myself up by the side view mirror.  There was HB sitting in the car reading the damn manual.  He looked up startled and came to my rescue.  I was kinda mad when he said "I was wondering what that pounding was?" Well, actually more than kinda, but the pain overruled everything at that point.  Several hours later and lots of ice and Tylenol and there was no major damage, just bruises and sore joints.

Today I am just a mass of aches and sore spots.  Nothing rest and Tylenol won't fix. HB has been informed that it is necessary to get out of the car and investigate all pounding sounds when I am with him.  I hope I don't have to find out if he remembers this. 

A RUDE AWAKENING CONCERNING MY INTELLIGENCE

Today HB and I went to look at new cars.  My car is 10 years old this year.  It's still a good car, but it needs to be a second car, not the one we use every day.  It's tired. We decided to get a 2012 model because we keep our cars FOREVER. When we bought my Mountaineer it had several really cool  bonus items.....heated seats, a beeping sound when something came close to the back of the car, and a moon roof.  Oh yeah, and the rear door lifted up from the bottom and covered you while you were loading your groceries.  It was the bomb!.......or so I thought then.
Today we purchased a car that is smarter than both of us put together.  You talk to it and it does stuff!  I mean, come on, it's a car.  I can tell it to call people, or play the music I want to hear.  The rear door opens with the push of a button.  The car tells me when there is slow traffic ahead.  It starts itself when I push a button.....from OUTSIDE the car! Really it boggles the mind!  It will take me at least a month to read through the manual.  Remembering what I read will require intense note taking. I'm old. Memory is not one of my strengths.
There is even a class given for buyers so they can understand their cars.  Does anyone besides me think that this is just a wee bit scary?

Oh...you don't need a key to start this car.  You just need the key on your body.  Tonight HB and I stopped by Panera on the way home from getting said car.  We went in to get carry out. (Seriously, that sentence itself it freaking me out...going in, to carry out??)  HB decided he would wait until he got inside the car to start it.  Once inside he pushed the start button......nothing happened.  He pushed it again........nothing.  So he messes around with more bells and whistles which resulted in some iTunes, a phone call, numerous lights coming on and going off, a very warm seat, but still no engine noise.   He put the car in reverse anyway and it went.....nowhere.  Finally he got the driver's manual from the middle seat and I began to read it to him.  After two readings of Basic How to Start Your Car 101 we realized that you had to push the brake as you pushed the start button.......a ha!   See, two brains and we still couldn't start our own car.....the future isn't looking good for us is it?

A BORING BLOG ENTRY

My sister says I do not add new posts enough to keep this blog thing going.  She's probably right, but here's the thing.  Who cares that I have a 5/8 inch build up of dust on all the furniture in my house, that my beadmaking mojo seems to have taken a permanent leave of absence (without permission, I might add) or that ALL of the drawers in my house have suddenly become junk drawers.  Seriously who out there in blog reader blogdom cares about this ?  I live it, and at this point I don't even care :)

I blame part of the cleaning problem on my knees and back, which is a good excuse considering I have had multiple spinal fusions and a knee replacement, but only for things that require my attention sitting or kneeling on the floor.  This covers baseboards, and storage containers under the beds, but little else that I can think of right now.  I was hoping I could come up with so much more.

Dusting?  I hate dusting.  It's never ending.  If you clean out a drawer and are diligent about keeping it in order, it stays that way.  I have no control over dust.  I remove it, it comes back.  It's like it's taunting me.  I choose to ignore it.

On to bead mojo.  I have no answers to where it went, so now I am knitting.  I have ideas of beads to make, but so far few of them have been successful.  I'm not giving up, just taking the time to clean my studio, think about beads.  Hopefully Miss Mojo will return and we will make some beautiful beads.

Okay, I have a new approach to this cleaning thing.  Today I will clean and purge two drawers.  I will do this every day until they are all done.  Dust, you just keep on keeping on.  I do not see you.  This is my world people, kind of boring isn't it?  :)  But hey, I wrote a blog entry.  Yay me ! 

GOOD NEWS

This weekend my son and his wife sold their house in Atlanta.  Hooray !!!  That means three little munchkins will now live in the same city as their ecstatic grandparents!  HB and I have always wanted to live closer to our grandchildren.  The oldest one lives in St. Louis and the other 3 are in Atlanta.  Our wish finally came true!  Our son started his own company and took a project in Ky.  Of course I realize this is going to mean a whole new life style for me.  I'm a night owl and since retirement I often work in my studio until 3am.  I can sleep late because there are no children here.  This would change drastically when our daughter in law needs help with the kids.  She works too,  doing PR, free lance.  That will be okay though.  Looking into the faces of those three little people just makes me smile.  I can't wait to be a regular part of their lives!  I'm feeling like a lucky, lucky person today! My mojo can just stay on hiatus!

A NEW OBSESSION AND A PLEA

 Since my beadmaking skills seems to have taken a hiatus I have taken up a new interest.  I learned to knit when I was a teenager, but stopped a long time ago.  This winter I decided to try it again.  It happened when I found Noro yarns, which are multi colored and make the most simple object look amazing.   This is a scarf I'm making for myself.  It fulfills my need for color and and keeping my hands busy.  It's almost 6 feet long. I was surprised at how quickly I could pick up my knitting skills, but I still have bead block and it is driving me crazy.   I've tried everything, getting out pictures of old beads and remaking them, looking at beads I like and attempting to put my own twist on them,  restricting myself to just a couple of colors.  trying tutorials.  I'm just stuck. So I knit, and knit.......and knit, but my heart wants to make beads.....good beads, pretty beads.....oh sweet mojo, please come back.