Pine Needle Baskets

I need to get my stuff out to work on some baskets, its been a few years since I,ve made some, guess for Blaines wedding gift might have been the last ones I,ve done for gifts, think before that i did one for Michelle,s anniversary, I need to do one for me, this time i would like to do a little larger one, Not sure if Loretta still has the chance to get more needles, I do have a few boxes that should be used up first. I still also had a few more health issues for Dwayne I did not get to, he did have one surgery on his veins on the side of his neck, that was 4 years ago, the other side they could not do anthing ,veins were no good at all, now they wanted to do it again last year ,the same side was already 75 blocked, so very little oxyigin is getting to his brain, so they wanted to do a stench,in his body to relocate the blood flow to get more oxygin to his brain, but he did not want to anything done at this time, and I wonder if his heart or lungs could take it anyway, never what the doctors want done, will he do it, only the lord knows just what more his body can take, well I,m going to try and work on some towels for our trip, Laurel

more health issues

i didn,t have time to talk more of Dwayne,s health issues, I can imange what you thought when you saw all those piles of cloths, with his dementia he does things different, he need to see his shoes, which he did only have 5 or 6 pairs by the sofa, but his cloths, he need to see them all the time ,if he can,t see them , then i got rid of them, I need to try and keep some things covered or else his items will cover what ever space he can claim, I finally said he does not need to see his sox drawer, no matter what I put on that dresser or the other ones, he still takes the stuff out so he can see them, even his tools, we tried to down size the room he has to work with , but he is always asking me where this tool or that, finally last fall I said I have no idea where i put his car wax,so he went and bought another jar, or bottle, and hides it so no one will take it,then back to his heart ,he also has a valve that will short out and not work, the one pill that will help that some he is already on,well that is it for now, I did finish the quilt I was working on.Laurel

Tears of joy

Here is Karla with brother Terry, we went to her wedding,I just don,t remember the year, I do know that her girls are in their teens,i do remember a few of the cousins and Aunt Anna Butler was there , who was dads sister,I only had a few pictures,think Ken was there also, I do think that Karla and Carlee do look alike. The tears of joy was meeting Carlee, I just could not say anything about Terrys birthday which was the day before, the 16, of March.I knew if I said anything I would shed a few tears,i must just be stressed out , to be on the tearfull side, I,ve done that before.It is amazing to meet someone and feel so close so soon,I do hope the rest of her visit goes well,well back to sewing, Laurel

One bee

kind of hard to see ,but there is a bee very top center crocus, the sun did come out for a little bit, thought I,d see what was going on outside, think we have had just about enough snow, wind ,rain,hail, you name it, but we need to give prayers for all the victims of weather realated going on this morning,and I need not to complain to much,guess we are always asking for what ever we don,t have, as they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fench,well need to check e-mail, waiting on cutting fabric directions.

Kim,s Birthday,

Here are a few pictures taken for Kim,s Birthday, my youngest son Kevin,s girlfriend, the tablecloth had 12 flower blocks on it, the towels were on the stove, and the angel food cake turned out great, we had strawberries and raspberries with vanilla and strawberry ice cream, main dinner was a turkey dinner, tried to think of something filling and yet soft, she had to go to the dentist that morning. We never had Birthdays growing up, only when we were small, Keith did get a birthday celebration when he was I think 38, and Terry had one at moms place ,did have a few pictures of that, so when I got married , my mother-in-law made a different cake each year for me, I didn,t care what kind I got, I really do prefer Blackberry or Raspberry pie,as far as I know, I don,t know why we didn,t have birthday,s another question I should ask Gary when I see him,anyway Kim loved the quilt ,dinner and gifts from Michelle, and they were even a little early to visit, don,t get to see Kevin all that much, but I really enjoy the chance to see them both,
I did everything , both James and Michell had to work that day, now I can rest, need to start another quilt, for Kims daughter to have ready by the end of next month,Kim gave me the fabric that she would like to be used.Laurel

Fossils

Terry and the rest of the family would spend hours on the shore In Clallam Bay or other shores in the area, either looking for agates or fossils, Gary is a really good finder, I too have saved many, you do need a fairly dry day to do that, and lots of patience,even my Aunt Myrtle when she lived in Florida came back here with all kinds of sea shells and fossil shark teeth, not very large , but very old, I had the one picture of Terry at the beach in Clallam Bay, on a sunny day, lots of fossil clam shells saved,I do miss laying on the beach , I have not been back to Clallam Bay or Port Angeles in ten years,although now I do have alot of petrified wood, when Blaine,oldest son moved to Las Vegas, he gave me what he had, I really need to place more if it outside in the yard,his first wife,s family had a store, and the grandfather would travel the world to look for items like that, so some pieces are very different ,have them stored out in the green house for now, well need to go for now, Laurel.

Another sign of spring

You can tell spring is not too far behind, these friendly yard creatures appear each year, no more then 2 or 3, one year I wish I had my camera handy, a very tiny rabbit was trying to hide under a blackberry leaf, don,t know which one was bigger, but it didn,t want anything to do with me being in its space,It was so good to hear that Carlee will be in the area in a few weeks,and hopefully we will be able to meet one another.I can remember Terry was always trying to be able to get over here, His wife Dee was always changing things, he did make it over for a few family gatherings, but never during any holidays, I,d even wait till Christmas Eve before I,d do shopping for dinner, and he,d have to call and say they would not be making it over, only had a few xmas gathering with him at his place, I did have a few close calls with him, Dee just wanted to be only with her Mom and Dad, I did learn after getting married ,we made our own memmories with out kids and family,well need to get working on a few things, Laurel.

spring

I guess spring is trying to tell us its there turn, it may still be to cold for us, I know I didn,t get the winter project done I should have, I,ll get at least part of it done this spring , the other half will have to wait till next fall, the ground was just way to frozen to move anythiny including my body,a few croucus and a elephant ear saye do you see me, how amazing with as cold as it is. I don,t think Terry had a favorite time of the year, I know fall was Moms ,I guess I like spring and fall,I feel they show more color,Have been busy with picking up the candle work area, Michelle will have some friends over this afternoon to work on some Easter candles, for their spring fair, still waiting on items I ordered first week of Fab, they say they shipped them, finally 1/2 order was shipped Monday and 2nd 1/2 should of been sent out by thursday night, should take care of my orders till fall when I,ll order one or two more bolts of fabric, well seems like I always have to get to get lunch or dinner, once and a while can Dwayne fix him something, he hasn,t cooked anythid for at least 8 ot 9 years now, does not have the strengthh to stand in on place that long, getting worried about our planned trip for next month, I am praying ,Laurel.

I have to come clean i missed bible study this morning, did not get much sleep, usually i have at least 6hrs, once in a blue moon 7, but last night 4 hrs if that, and I didn,t have my lessons done, its been more then a challengeing week with Dwayne, and usually going to bible study gets me out of the house at least once a week, I really need to make it next week, my turn to bring morning fruit snacks, this time of year its going to be mainly canned fruit, I do miss doing summer canning, Mom would do 4 or 5 hundred jars of stuff just for herself, I feel guilty just thinking about doing for one, no one also likes canned fruit around here but me, Terry did some canning, thats hard to believe, He loved canned mushrooms, he,d go in the woods and collect the wild ones, don,t remember what they were called,he knew just what ones were good or the bad ones, he tried to get me to try them, in those years I couldn,t eat mushrooms , any kind, I,d break out from anything with them in it, let alone, just canned, he would also freeze fruit,mainly blackberries, he,d find good patches while working in the woods,Dee said she did canning, but don,t know what that was,but Mom, everything from fruit to meat, and fish, she wanted to make sure she would always have something on hand,her apples were more then good, all she had to do was do a crust and her pie was out of this world, here I just thought I,d have a little to say this morning, better get , Laurel

Sewin items

Well here are a few of the new bins nearly full from dinner napkins to the different threads that I use, sewing thread, embroidery thread,may be just a few more pictures of the batting for the quilts and the different stabalizers I need for embroidery work, then the different sissors also,,trying to get some what order in here,I am always doing something,not to mention all the bolts of fabric, cut and not cut, I can remember Terry saying he couldn,t get things in order, Dee his wife had so much craft items laying all over the place ,she never did things in order, I loved that lady dearly, it was a challange for the rest of the family to get along with her,so sometimes his stuff was in second place,and because most of his work was done on wood, that did take up a lot of room in the house, as long as he had room for his coffee and cups, the bigger the better,and his paperwork, he did do alot of journals, he would be up in the middle of night writing,he,d prefer to be alone when he did that,I may have his last one he wrote, only read a few pages then someone added words to it,I guess either Dee or her daughter did that, well getting close to lunch ,need to get, Laurel.

still snowy thoughts

On this cold and snowing day I remember when Keith was very critical, we were told only a matter of hours before he would pass away, him in Yakima hospital and us on our way, Terry was driving with Mom over to pick me up, this is the first week of January,and that meant two passes between here and there, Terry had already driven nearly 4 hours to get here ,and we had nothing but trouble with Moms cables that they had on, Terry would get out of the car into freezing tempature to repair them,I know it was really hard on his fingers, but he was not going to stop us from getting there. , We didn,t know till then that they delayed shutting off the machines till we got there, somehow we found the hospital ,Mom and I went into his room, to say our goodby, Mom holding one hand and me the other, his wife was in the family room, and the nurse said go get her now, this feels just like it happen yesterday,and that was it, I am pretty sure I can never do that again,it took everything Terry had to get us there,I also had to do that for my Aunt Myrtle in 2001,Its amazing what god gives us the strength to do.