Yet, One More Trip To Olympa

 I am beginning to think we should move to Olympia at this point. I received a message from Kaiser to get a MRSA test done before I got to Tacoma for my surgery on my trigger thumb. So, I had to run up there today. 

Patrick went golfing this morning and when he came home, said he needed some time before we left. So, while I waited on him, I worked on more beading. 

I added the beads on the right side and got the flower area finished. 

Then I worked on the sash. It was interesting and I kept checking my pattern to make sure I stitched it right. Guess I did. The other side doesn't match the right side, which makes it look like I didn't do it right. Oh, well. 

Then we headed to Olympia for my test. We got on I-5 and it took us 30 minutes to go from Chehalis to Centralia, which are twin cities. There was an accident according to the car information. When we got where it was supposed to be, it was cleared up. Then as we came into Tumwater/Olympia area, we ended up going through almost the same amount of time. It was surprising that it took so long. We were thankful we didn't have an appointment. When we got there, I went to the check-in desk, and they sent me to a nurse that was "available", but we ended up waiting 15 minutes on her. It wasn't even a 5-minute visit for the MRSA test. 

We then came home and I cooked a lasagna to freeze for my meals when Patrick isn't feeling good - like today. I fixed a stir fry for super instead. I have a piece of the lasagna in the frig, but I took something else out for tomorrow. We'll see what I'm interested in tomorrow. I will be at the presentation with a meeting before that. Should be interesting. 

So, I'm happy that I could find time for Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Took The Day Off

I slept in till around 9:30 am. I just didn't want to get up. But I finally did. Patrick went golfing. 

I received a message that I need to get a MRSA test done before Tuesday's surgery. Oh, what fun! 

Went out and walked my 7 laps. I ran into one of my neighbors who asked me how many times I go around the neighborhood. Told him 7 and it comes to about 2.3 miles. He had his corgi dog with him. Really sweet guy. 

Came in and Patrick was back from golfing. I had laundry going all day. I played and listened to my book on audiobooks. It's good enough to keep me interested in the book. Lately I seem to swallow up the books on tape. I can't seem to stop listening to them. 

Then I went out on the deck and trimmed the hanging baskets, as some of them were looking a little poor. I was able to clean them up quite a bit. Hopefully they will start looking better now that they were picked over. 

Some information came in on one of the QOV guys we wanted to award in July. I went ahead and scheduled him for next month. Then I called Diane. She called me later today to say she finally got a hold of the guy we were trying to get that was active duty. She was in tears. He passed away 2 weeks ago. I told her it happens but so far, it's only the 5th one we have missed. He wasn't that old, so I wonder what happened to him. It makes it rough when we try so hard to award a quilt and then they end up gone. That's the hardest part for us. Diane was taking it hard because she still hasn't gotten over her husband's passing 8 years ago. 

My day was ignoring stuff and just playing my games. It wasn't anywhere near Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Casino & Quilts

This morning, I was up and wanting to play my games for a bit. Instead, I went for a walk and made it around the neighborhood 5 times. Patrick wanted to go to the casino early, so we left about 10:15 am. I had a message to Martha to meet us at IGA. Then Colleen said that Jan would be there to. 

We arrived at about 10:55 am, and both of them just arrived as well. Jan took 2 of the kits for quilts, while Martha took 2 as well. Then we headed to the casino to play. Neither one of us were really "excited" about going. Arriving around 11:15 am, we played till 2 pm. By that time, we were done with playing the slots. I won the mega again on the machine. Which by the time we were tired of playing, we had $1,200 coming home with us. Weird how we have been winning lately. I'm so used to us playing and losing money that this is getting interesting. We figure we are over $4k ahead this year. It's nice to have the money to play. Not that we need it, since we don't do much to spend our money in the first place. 

Came home and I fixed stroganoff. I froze what was left, since Patrick doesn't eat it. He wanted a burger, so I got it ready to cook.  I asked if he wanted soup or the burger and he said he wasn't ready yet. Then said, "Let me know when you want to eat." I told him I wanted to eat now, since mine was done. He came in the kitchen, and I handed him the bag with the burger. He looked at me and said, "I thought you would fix it for me." SERIOUSLY, wait till my food is hot and then make me cook his burger. NOPE! He ended up cooking his own. I was fine with that. 

When we got home, 2 quilts and a box of fabric were at the door. I didn't realize I got flower fabric for batting. OOPS. 

It will just have to be for a female's quilt. Or we may sale it at the garage sale to get our money back. It will be up to the group. 

I was trying for something different on the backs of the quilts. I like this pattern. 

I ended up labeling 8 quilts. This one is for next month. The good news is that I have 3 quilts that will work great for Saturday. Panels are coming in. I will pick up 2 of the anniversary quilts from Jo on Monday. 

I don't know if sewing labels on quilts count for being Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

We Seem To Live In Olympia These Days

 This morning, I woke to find Patrick on the couch. He didn't have a good night sleep. He wasn't feeling the best. 

I went walking and missed a round. I must have done 6 thinking it was 7. I will fix that tomorrow. 

Spent the morning playing. I was chatting with good friends. Then it was time to head back up to Olympia for my visit. 

Since I'm having to take medication for my cholesterol, I had to go see the nurse to see how to inject the medication into my tummy. I wasn't too thrilled about it, but I didn't get myself worked up. At least I didn't think so. It was a really good visit. The nurse told me all I needed to know. When I pushed it in my tummy, it didn't work, but she made sure I didn't remove it to do it again. She helped push harder and then I could hear the click and feel it. Not my favorite thing, but I am so glad I was instructed how to work the pin. I did get a little woozy, but I did good. I stayed and had to chat with her for a while. She wanted to make sure I didn't react to the medication. I know what to look for and I'm good. I don't look forward to doing this every 2 weeks, but I need to, so I will. 

We stopped and dropped off some fabric for Colleen. Then Patrick got me a burger since he wasn't hungry and didn't want anything. 

Then we came home and I had to make a few phone calls. I was setting us up for the Fair and getting QOV meeting notes for Saturday. I kept busy with QOV emails to let the veterans know we haven't forgotten them. I must have sent out 50 emails - at least it felt that way. 

Now I'm done, and I want to call it a day. I'm done. I wish I was but ended up not even close to being Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Trip To The Vets And Stitching

 This morning, I took Sophie to the vets. We stopped at the credit union before heading there. I ended up spending a good 15-20 minutes there. Good thing I left early. I wanted to get some tea before getting there, but my time ran out and I ended up getting it on the way back. Sophie was good. She just wanted to hide. It was good seeing Bob again. He's wanting to go to Europe soon. I would love to go, but that won't happen with Patrick. Sophie was quiet when we got there. She meowed the whole time to the vets. Then we walked in and she shut up. When we were coming home, she didn't say a word. lol 

It was just a checkup, so it went well. 

Came home and listened to my book and played my games. I'm trying to decide if I want to continue playing the war games. It's not fair anymore. People who play on that game send thousands of dollars to get powerful things. Those of us that don't pay to play are left in the dust. If they offer things to win, then the powerful ones pay to win them. Never ending circle. 

After supper, I pulled the cross stitching out and got to work on it. I was surprised at how many stitches I missed on the cross-stitching part. 

I worked on the left side and then headed to the middle. I'm almost done with the middle area, then I need to add more to the right side. I rolled it once, but I may need to roll it again. It's coming along. I do like it. But it does have a TON, and I mean a TON of beads. There is a lot more to do. Then I will have to outline it as well, the closer I get to the top part of the body. UGH But I do like what I'm doing. 

At least I made myself get back to stitching so I could be Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Game Play & Beading

This morning, I was happy to see the "Kingdom vs Kingdom" fight was on around 9 am our time. I rarely get to play. I played today. Wasn't my favorite time because there wasn't a rhyme or reason to what was going on. We played for points in honor of our playmate that passed away this week. All our names have been changed to honor her. Not sure how long that will last. I had my icon changed with her in the background of my hawk. I will change my name back later. 

Then I went for my walk. The best part was the earbuds arrived just before I headed out there. I wanted a separate pair, so I didn't have to go in my phone or tablet to disconnect the earbuds and reconnect to the device I was listening to. These are green and from a different brand. I like them but I like my other ones better. This one, has the volume/voice a little different than I like. I do like the green - so I can tell them apart. The green is for my phone and then other is for my tablet. I have been listening to my phone all afternoon because I needed to recharge my tablet around 1 pm. That was a good excuse to get some stitching done! YEAH!

It's closer to getting halfway done. It's amazing how much work this is! The beads take forever. 

Since the floss came in yesterday, I stitched the leaves in. It was easy to do. I enjoyed being able to do something other than beads. I have more outlining coming up, and that will break up the beading. 

I am now working on this side of the dress. I have a lot to do, but at least I did a lot today! I'm happy with the results. Tomorrow is another day. 

I have to take Sophie to the vets tomorrow. She's not going to like me. lol 

At least for today, it was Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Spent The Day With Georgie & Mom

This morning, I was up and ready to get ready for mom and Georgie to come over. I had to work on the cake I messed up yesterday on. I did the chocolate ganache. Then I put it in the frig till after mom left. 

Mom and Georgie arrived around 10:30 am. Mom was going to bring lunch but that didn't happen, so I had to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. 

We finished the border on one quilt. Mom was doing the sewing on my machine. I was cutting and getting things ready to sew together. Then I worked on the backing and batting for 4 quilts. I had to sew the 2 sides of the border on the anniversary quilt because mom and Georgie were saying how lose it was. So, I worked on it and got them done. If Georgie hadn't come, we probably wouldn't have gotten very far. Both of them worked on getting fabric for 3 of the panels. They are set to do 3 more panel quilts. I was showing them how to decide on what to do. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. 

This is one of the quilts we finished. It's pretty when you see it live. I gave it to Colleen to have one of the gals quilt it, but then I realized after I did, that the backing wasn't with it, because it was in the dryer. I was washing the backings to go with each of the quilts. 

This is how I cut the batting and backing material. It's on the floor with my cutting matt. It takes a lot to do it this way, but the batting doesn't fit on my table, and this is the easiest way to do it. I also measure the backing and cut it this way as well. It can wear me out getting up and down for several quilts. I let Colleen know I have 6 quilts that are ready to be quilted. She will be working with a couple of the quilters to see if she can use their machines. It will be interesting to say the least. It will be a good month before she will have a machine to quilt at her place. 

After mom and Georgie left, I finished up the cake with a mouse and frosting. I will say this much that cake was WAY TOO MUCH for the 2 of us. It was a mess when I was done, but a 3-layer cake is just too much. We even agreed on not doing Ganche again. I think I would make it with 2-layers and just put the stuff in the middle of the 2 layers. It was way too much work and a big mess. If the cake came out right, I may think differently, but all the time and effect into the cake, I was disappointed. It's way too much chocolate for me, and that's saying something. Since I love chocolate. 

I called it a night after that. Bryan called and we chatted for 2 hours. I was done. I'm ready to crash! At least today was a day of Happy Quilting/Happy Stitching!

Rainy Day - And Not My Day

This morning, Patrick was golfing and I was sleeping in. Then I finally got out the door to walk. Only made it 3 laps before the rain started to pour. Just as I got into the house the water was fast and strong coming down. I would have been even more soaked than I was. 

I needed to go to the grocery store for some things to make dessert. Mom said she needed me to come to the Bazaar so she could give me the quilt top that was done. So, I headed down the street to the Bazaar. They were doing okay with the sales when I got there. It wasn't really busy, but it was getting some interest. They sold a few plates and a few of the wreaths we made. I will ask mom tomorrow when her and Georgie come over. I bought a couple cinnamon rolls that one of the gals was selling. Then I headed to Safeway. I didn't have much luck with coupons. That didn't make me happy. lol I picked up a lot of stuff and then come home. Patrick helped me unload. 

I wanted to bake a cake from scratch. I did pretty good, till I forgot to put the eggs in the batter. So, I added the eggs and mixed it up. Then I told Patrick not to worry about the pan and just go ahead and oil/flour it. Of course, he had to do that since I was putting the dough in the pans when he asked if I added the eggs. OMG! I didn't! So, fixing that issue and then trying to get them in pans, well that's another issue. Of course, when they were cooked and coming out, I couldn't get them out of the pan. So, of course they broke apart and I will have to repair them when I put the frosting on. UGH!! After we had such a hard time, Patrick reminded me that I could have put parchment paper down on the pans first. REALLY! Now you tell me! Okay, in honesty, I haven't baked a cake in a long time using the round tins. The 13x8" pans work great for me. But this was a cake that was rounds, so of course, I had to make it right. We put them in the frig downstairs for tonight. I will work on the frosting tomorrow; there are like 3 kinds to this one. Lord help me, that I can fix it and it doesn't look like a cow pie. I will let you know tomorrow. 

I got the patter back that I was looking for that I bought for QOV. Now I have it, I'm going to get a couple kits ready for it. It's a simple pattern that will us up our big eagle fabric we have. Even the flag pattern fabrics will work. It works great for fat quarters too. So, when I get to the point of fat quarters, I will use them. 

I was trying to measure the quilt for batting and backing. Miss Sophie decides she wants to play with it. She was climbing under it and playing. So, I had to measure somewhere where she wouldn't get to it. 

It turned out, my days was more of "oops" than anything else, so I wasn't in the mood for Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Part Casino Day

This morning, I was up and walking. I didn't get but one round in when I ran into one of my neighbors. We chatted for a while. Then as I was going for the next round, Raymond my next-door neighbor was driving by and chatted. Found out one of our neighbors passed away last week. Found out another neighbor has cancer. Things aren't looking good on the street. We must have chatted for a total of an hour between the two. So, I went and finished my walk after chatting with Raymond. 

Patrick got home shortly after. I didn't get far. I did get some paperwork in the mail and had to take care of that. I sent off stuff to QOVF. 

Then we headed to the casino but had to stop at the post office first. We arrive around 12:30 pm or 1 pm. Not sure. I figured we stayed for about 3 hours. We played our games and it was funny, both Patrick and I weren't really in the mood since we have been on the run for the whole week. So, we decided we would be done at 4 pm so we could get a pizza before coming home. It was fun, but we just weren't into it that much. Surprisingly, it didn't matter because Patrick won another MEGA for $900 +. By the time we decided to call it done, we were ahead by $1000+. I'm happy with that. Funny, I know our winning streak will be over but so far, we are doing great. 

On the way home, we stopped at Colleen's and gave her the 2 quilts back so she could bind them. Her quilt machine died, so now she has to get it first. In the meantime, she is working on quilt tops. She had 3 quilt tops from a couple of our volunteers. 

Bought them home and I measured them. Showed Patrick what they looked like, and he didn't like a couple of them. Yet, he was the one that picked the colors. I may change a color on some if I don't care for the combination because he has been known to be a little off at times. I'm waiting to do more kits. I want the pattern that one of the gals has but hasn't brought back. I kick myself that I didn't make a copy at the time! Even with all that, I didn't get anywhere near Happy Quilting/Happy Stitching!

Three Days In A Row

I woke to the phone ringing at 9 am. It was my cousin Bryan. He needs me to do something for him, but I will wait till tomorrow. After I hung up with him, I took my shower. Then to get another phone call from Kaiser about the medication they are sending me. I had to know how much it would cost me per month. It's $100 a month to get my medication for cholesterol. It's only 2 applications a month. It's like an allergic pin. I can't spell all the stuff I need to, so please forgive me for that. I will have to "shot" myself. 

Then I had a message from the nurse at my doctor's office. She wanted to schedule my appointment to come and learn how to do that.  I was going to text back to let her know, when Patrick called me as I was walking. His doctor wanted him in the infusion center for his calcium. So, we ended up driving back up to Kaiser to get him there. I ended up waiting downstairs for him. I was going to wait in the waiting room there at the oncology/infusion area. I decided I didn't want to see the cancer patients coming and going. They were looking at me to see what I was there for. So, I went and got myself some tea from downstairs. Then I played on my phone and worked on one of my embroidery pieces. I didn't take a photo because I really didn't get much done at all before Patrick came down to get me. 

We came home and watched TV after supper. We didn't get to go to the casino today, but that's fine. Since he's retired, it really doesn't matter. I need to go back up on Tuesday for the nurse visit, and he will get his blood tests done then too. That's life. 

I was on my game today, when I found out one of our players passed away. She was "Freebird" in our game. I will seriously miss her. I won't be playing much in the next couple days. It's hard to play when one of the "family" is gone. I will seriously think of her when I'm playing. I was looking for her this past week. She was playing one of the games and went to the hospital. After that, no one heard from her. Not sure how Sux found out she passed, but someone checked on her. I may just go in and get what I need to do, and leave. It may take time to come back and play. At least it wasn't Sux that passed. That would really kill me! 

I did find time today for Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!

Another Trip To Olympia

 I was up and playing on my tablet for a bit. Then around 1 pm we headed back up to Olympia for my doctor appointment. Everything looks good, except I have to get a different prescription for my cholesterol medication. It's one they advertise on TV and I have to give myself a shot every 2 weeks. Not looking forward to it. I will try. My doctor told me it's not that bad, but I should try it. If that doesn't work, then I will be able to get the one that was denied. UGH!! I also got a couple other things done and everything is looking good. Patrick went to get blood work, and just as we were getting in the driveway Kaiser called to tell him he needs to go to urgent care to get calcium in his veins. He told them he didn't have symptoms and he wasn't going in.  He wants to add more of the calcium and potassium with his pills. They didn't sound very happy with him, but he decided he wasn't going in. I will keep an eye on him to see if he gets to the point, I have to take him in. 

I worked on my cross stitching today. 

It's coming along. Just not as fast as I would like. 

I just realized I need to order my floss. I will do that now. I was able to add all these beads. This has so many beads, it's driving me crazy. lol 

At least I found the time for fun and Happy Stitching/Happy Quilting!