Week 43

Didn't quite know what to call this blog. I first had called it fever week. Why? Because that's what poor little Caleb had for several days. But one thing after the other.

Monday October 20

I thought that this might finally be the week were I can tackle a lot of my projects and may be finish something. Oh yeah?

I had a great excuse though. Right after lunch a long-time friend from Paducah Kentucky arrived and I had an excuse again. John is very involved about finding out about his own family history but loves all history. He has family in the area but had never been to the river James and the canal downtown. We of course love history too and James knows a lot about it. The weather was very nice and it was great fun.

John and I of course are always talking Chrismons. I have designed most of the Grace Church Chrismons for the children over the past 20 years but had just bought a Alpha&Omega kit. I managed to make it this morning but the design used a lot of beads. And even though I had scaled down the beads from 4 mm to 3 mm, it still was too large and not suitable for the children's gifts.
Luckily a lightbulb came on and this is a first try of my design. I know already the changes I want to make but overall I am pretty pleased with my new "baby".

Tuesday

John stayed the night in our guest room. He had to promise me to walk around upstairs only with his eyes closed. My "queendom" is totally out of hand. But I think they say that an unruly room is a sign of a creative person. There you go!
Sarah has to work this afternoon. Because Caleb has a fever she can not take him to the daycare. So they came and we all had lunch together. Something simple.

John left after lunch and so did Sarah. Papa took Caleb for a walk but it didn't last long. Caleb obviously didn't feel well. He started having a fever again.

We tried our very best to make him comfortable, distract him and play with him. It wasn't easy.

When Wade picked him up I mentioned that he was poking on his ear. Later we received a text that Wade had taken him to the doctor and the little guy had an ear infection. At least we know that with the medicine he will perk up really fast.

Wednesday

Fever has to be gone for 24 hours so no daycare today again. Sarah had to work in the morning so Wade brought him a little later in the morning because he had fallen asleep again before he could bring him. He felt better though which was great.
We played peek-a-boo around the fireplace. Here is a VIDEO!
Omi fixes lunch so Caleb helps Papa look through a magazine.

And he played very nicely. But the empty tissue box seemed to be the best toy. I tried to take a video but was a little be too late for the best moment. Seems to be the story most of the time. But HERE IT IS!
Funny the associations we have with things. If I see an empty tissue box I think of William. For him they are tunnels when playing with the trains. Looking forward to playing trains with William next month!!!

Thursday

Caleb is better. Yeah! Back to daycare.
For me this is stitchers-day, sewing for charity. I was a bit in a panic because lunch is a potluck and I just couldn't decide what to take. Haven't made it to the grocery store in a while. Dear James would just do the most necessary shopping for us. I had country style Hash Browns in the freezer and googled. Lots of recipes but nothing quite what I liked so I took ideas of 15 recipes and ended up with something that might very well be a keeper. I will do it again and share the final version. James approved of the leftovers for supper.

Friday

This is normally Sarah's day off (so never daycare) but not today. Her boss had asked her to go to a special health conference. She had ask me quite a while ago so we had a little visitor again.
Obviously he feels better!

In the afternoon he just didn't want to take a nap. No way. But I did find some toys he liked.

Still no nap. His Mommy had felt bad in the morning because Caleb had shared his cold. She finally came back and could do with a nap herself. At least she doesn't have to work this weekend.
Caleb is so tired but just can't settle down. I can't stand it when my babies cry. Papa volunteers for a walk again and doesn't have to go far. Caleb takes the nap in the stroller And is pushed into the bedroom.
Then they go home happy. Happy weekend to all!

* * *
Well, I thought I was done here but ... have to share something else (got permission). Fotos taken from FaceBook.
Helen went with her family to her first ever "trunk or treat" at her church. William loves science about space and stars etc. no wonder this was his choice for a costume.
His mother was very inventive and used props from his birthday party (here). You can see the table cloth became a backdrop and the party gifts globe became a trick or treat bucket etc. They won a red ribbon "best trunk" for her "Space Trunk".

They also went to a pumpkin patch which was great fun for the children. William and Sedona are best friends from church. So cute.

The next picture was shared by my sister Ute via her iPad (which she bought on her last day when she visited in May).
Halloween is creeping into Germany too. She had fun baking and decorating pumpkin cookies with her two grandsons Gero and Adrian and her daughter Maren (their auntie). Lots of creativity going on.

Isn't the Internet great?

 

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Finding the groove

Trying to! Getting back to normal, whatever normal is.

 

We came back on Friday October 10. The next day we had an opportunity to spend time with Caleb again. Sarah had to work early (making up a shift for a friend) and brought him shortly after 7am.

He had a bit the sniffles but otherwise was in good form. First he had to try his Cousin William's bike. His arms and his legs are still a little too short though. William doesn't need this in Nashville any longer because he has big boys bikes now. But we thought he might like to use it here when he visits in November and later his cousin can use it when he grew a little.

 

 

 

 

He has changed a lot in the time we were gone. He even likes to eat certain foods by himself ... Cheerios being his favorite of course.

 

 

 

And like William he likes to help to take down Omi's cards.

 

 

Sunday (the 12th) was a special day at our church St. Martin's. The Bishop was visiting. After he was gone I saw this in the hall way with wonder ... or horror. I quickly found out that this only saved a parking spot for him. What a relief.

 

 

Of course we turn our telephones off for church service but afterwards we found a text from Sarah inviting us to a belated birthday dinner for her Dad. Sounds great.

Caleb was still up and had supper. Mandarins for dessert. As always I wasn't fast enough with the camera. Just before thIs he was feeding his Mommy. Here is a VIDEO anyway.

 

 

Dessert for us. James didn't mind not having candles in his cupcakes.

 

 

Back in the groove: Monday was the monthly meeting of the Colonial Lacemakers.

Tuesday was the monthly meeting of the CR Quilters. First the block of the month (I didn't have time to make mine and Linda shared several months because she had to catch up) and then show+tell.

 

 

 

 

 

This month's lecture/lesson was actually a workshop. Whoever wanted to could bring her sewing machine, material needed and a sack lunch. I had prepared for each to make the 12-block set of a stack+whack crazy quilt.

 

 

 

 

The first block finished.

 

 

On the same day in the evening is always the meeting of the Church Mice Quilters. The strips for these two quilts were sewn by the members. I made one too and it was fun. The group decided to donate the pieced tops to Stitchers for a cause (my Thursday charity group).

 

 

 

I can't remember when or why this picture was taken but it is too cute not to share. Ha-ha, James reminded me now. How took the selfie when he had gone to Sarah to help her out with Caleb because she had to pack and get ready for them to leave to Charlotte, NC, for a wedding.

 

 

Otherwise ... still battling with the computers. Grrrrrr. The old one had serious issues and just restoring the files out of cyberspace brought the issues to the new one. Navigating the new one with Windows8 wasn't much fun either. It seems though that we Have won the battle now.

Blogsy on the iPad still has issues. Still have to do trickery. Should not have updated to IOS8 at least not yet. Grrrrrrrr again. So much extra time wasted.

And ... ? Crafting at the church every Sunday afternoon (when I am here) for the church bazaar and preparing things to do beforehand. Working on my projects. I have so many ideas in my head, of course mainly lace and quilting. I also have decided to do something about my back pain. And my doctor sent me to physical therapy. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

 

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Nashville (Cheekwood) ... and going home

Thursday October 9

Yes, William slept til almost 8 and woke up with a smile. The weather didn't look very promising and we contemplated what to do. We had hoped to go to Cheekwood but weren't so sure any more with the possibility of rain. But then we decided to give it a try anyway. Good thing we did because we had a great time.

We are members at Cheekwood so because of the mailings James knew that the special exhibition at the moment was all about scarecrows. It was very cool. I am not sure what William thought about it but Omi loved it. There had gone a lot of thought and artistic work gone into most of them.

There was also a pumpkin patch. William was not so impressed with that but he did like the two games we played. Even got one in here.

So much to see.

There was a house totally out of sticks, subdivided like a maze. In the beginning there were other people with a little boy just a little older then William. The boy tried to make horrible "Halloween" sounds. First William was a little scared but then he told the boy several times that he "should be nice to people". I told him that the boy just tried to have some Halloween fun and I think he was fine with that. I thought it was cute.

M

One of my favorite pictures. We spent a lot of time here. William (and Papa) threw leaves into the brook and watched them float away (or not).

It wasn't easy to get going.

We went past the mansion/museum but I dashed in to find the restroom. William decided he wanted to check out the museum and really liked looking around. Photography was not allowed! Upstairs was the dining table covered with this tablecloth. I went and asked for permission to take photos of it since I was a lacemaker and thought my lacemaking friends would like to see it. It was granted. As far as I could see: cut work with inserted needlelace.

View from the terrace.

And this long wall along the driveway ... it always needs to be walked on at every visit.

Here you can see the "stick house" on the right. We went in again when we passed it.

And then we decided we were hungry. Too far to go home and there is a lovely restaurant.
William told the waitress he really liked her flowers. He also liked the pre-lunch cupcakes.

He also liked his water cup. Look at this VIDEO!

Back at the townhouse Helen comes for a little while but then it is time to say "good-bye". William is looking forward to visit us in "Girginia" in November. What a great time we had!

Friday October 10

We got up early and got going. What a miserable day weather-wise. Rain, pouring rain, most of the way. But there were some first signs of lovely fall foliage.

And yes, fog in the mountains before Charlottesville.

One thing we were really happy about: "Red" the new car did great. The adaptive cruise control and the lane departure warning system are just great. We arrived home a little later then usual but safe.

And after that: trying to get back into the groove.

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