Still Working....

Yep - I'm still working.  I am enjoying it though!  It sounds as if my employer will be hiring a new person - at least temporarily - to fill in for the young lady who is off sick, so I'm guessing I will be retired again soon.  So I will probably be retired again soon *smile*.

Right now I am just grabbing this minute to post - so you'll know I'm still around.  I have mailed off the package to my friend in New York.  I took a few hours on the weekend and sewed on buttons, sewed on the blanket border and pressed everything up neatly.  Here is the blanket - spread on the dining room table where the sun was shining in - so the lighting was excellent for attaching the border.

As you can see Taffy was supervising.  I will post finished pictures in my next blog.  I should have more time for blogging now that the project is done.  Well.........I want to make a little pullover for under the overalls........but I know that won't be finished in time for the new baby's arrival, so I won't hurry. 

I can hear Cujee upstairs hiccuping, so I guess I'll go and say hello before I leave for work.............Later!

Finished

Well, after a long absence - here I am!  I have been working full-time for the past three weeks, and am going in again next week.  One of the girls is off as she is quite sick, so being short-staffed, some help is needed there.  I am enjoying it, but it certainly takes up a large portion of my normal day!  But, I have managed to finish the project for New York.  I just have to put the finishing touches, like blocking and adding buttons - then it will be ready to go.  I anticipate getting some pictures later today and hopefully will get them posted today or tomorrow.  I also have pictures from the visit with the little boys last weekend and will have even more shortly since they are coming for another short visit on Tuesday.  Mommee wants to have a nice visit with Aunt Muffy before she heads back up north - so Poppa and I will look after the little boys, so they can have an evening on the town.

Most of the leaves are off the trees here in my part of the country, but about two weeks ago they were beautiful.  This gorgeous maple belongs to Great Grandma Grace, and I couldn't resist getting my camera out for a quick shot.

Another Quick Note

Hello!  I've been working all week, and I will be working again next week.  I haven't had much time to post.  I have been knitting diligently and the cardigan is getting really close to finished.  I have a back, two fronts and one arm completed, with one arm about two-thirds finished and the buttong and neck band to add.  I will try to post some pictures later.

Today I am anticipating the arrival of Mommee, Daddee, Munchie, Cujee, Auntie Muffy and Uncle Buddy!  Whew!  Munchie and his family will be here until Sunday.  Auntie Muffy is staying for a couple of weeks.  I'm sure there will be pictures of that too!

Gotta get ready for work now...........so I'll close with a picture for you..........from Auntie Colleen........here is her descriptive paragraph..........

"Jan Wheeler is a talented painter who usually shows out of her old Ontario brick farmhouse on a quiet rural road. This year they had fixed up the barn on the property and she showed inside. They'd whitewashed the walls and floor as a perfect backdrop for her work. What really pleased us, however, was seeing that they'd restored the outside of the barn. Totally. I've lived over 47 years in this area and have never seen anyone restore their barn. Instead we watch sadly as they fall apart all the more as the years slip by. But this... this is what the glorious huge buildings must have looked like when they were first built. Such a sight!"

........and here is the picture............I love this............for a multitude of reasons...........not the least of which is that I started life on a farm with one of these beautiful old barns...........and spent some happy hours playing there..............

Lovely hey!

October 10, 2010

Okay - I wanted to write this blog yesterday, but I had to hunt up some old pictures.  On October 10th, 2008, a momentous event took place.  Here is a picture taken the following day.

Yes.  We welcomed Christopher Phillip Mayhew (aka Munchie) into this great big world.  One year later I took another picture.

Isn't it amazing what a difference one year can make?  Oh Wow!  What a cutie!  I have a ton of pictures that I love..........but I can't put them all into this blog...........so we'll move ahead another year.  Mommee took this picture and I've posted it before, but it is such a good one that I chose it for this year's picture.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MUNCHIE!

Overalls and Other Projects

As you know, Poppa is happiest when he is undertaking some project.  Last week I went to find him at lunchtime and headed down to the workshop.........

I could see him shovelling away down there.  During the summer, when the township was putting up the playground, one of their big trucks rolled over the edge of Poppa's driveway down at the workshop, and squashed the culvert.  He decided that once he got the culvert back to its normal shape, he would pour a concrete edge to prevent similar occurrences.  First he had to dig out suitable spaces to insert some concrete blocks, put some screening in place to stop a tendency to heave with the frost, carefully place the blocks, pour cement into the holes and then top it all off with some poured concrete.  Big job requiring lots of energy expenditure.  He found that while he was on the pain meds for the oral surgery, his back didn't bother him at all - which is quite pleasant for him, since he is in some degree of discomfort all of the time.  This seemed, therefore, like a good time to work on this labour-intensive task.

Way too much work for me!  I'd rather be knitting....oh yes...........here are the overalls...........

The straps are wonky in the picture - I just noticed.  I haven't sewn the buttons on so they weren't done up - ergo they look different lengths - they are really the same.

Remember that garage door Poppa was working on a while back?  It was all peeling and yucky looking??  I don't think I ever posted a picture of it all finished - here is what it looks like now.

Here is what that culvert project looks like now.

And............did you spot Poppa in the garage door picture??  What on earth is he up to now???

Oh my gosh!  He's washing down the siding on the workshop and toolshed.  What a job!  I went back to the house to work on my knitting and the next time I saw him....

He was washing the vehicles.  Whew!  And while I was making supper I saw him out on the lawn tractor with Squeegie cutting the grass.  He finally quit and came in to eat.  And that - is a typical day in the life of Poppa.  I'm tired just typing it out!



It's a Matter of Time

A quick note of explanation regarding the complete lack of a blog posting in recent days.  I have been back to work as I mentioned in an earlier post..........and I really must get some knitting done for my friend in New York!  I have finished the blanket except for sewing on the border.  I have finished the overalls except for the straps.  I have pictures of lots of things I want to share with you, and I will try to take a few minutes to post them as soon as I get the straps on the overalls finished, and before I start the cardigan!  I am quite pleased with the results so far and I'm anxious to hear what the soon-to-be-grandma-again thinks!  Back soon!  One picture to share with you..........Mommee sent me this picture of a most adorable teddy bear!

Poppa and the Dentist and a Bath

I still didn't get the Cujee bath pictures posted..........for a couple of really good reasons!  Yesterday in the morning, Poppa went to the dental surgeon to have some mandibular tori removed from the floor of his mouth.  I looked it up on the internet and it looks pretty awful.  He was fine when he got home, but soon afterwards started to notice the pain.  He had an appointment in the afternoon, and as soon as it was over we stopped to pick up the prescriptions they had given him.  After taking some of them, and having a short nap, he felt good to go again and went down to the workshop to labour some more on the driveway down there.  I took some pictures, but haven't downloaded them yet.  While he was napping I was busy knitting.  I finished the border for the blanket and am now going full tilt on the overalls.  They seem to go quickly after the bigger blanket.  Here is a picture of how far I was on Friday evening.

I am happy to report that Poppa is doing much better than I expected he would - as long as he takes his pills!  He even had KFC for supper - after it had been in the blender that is.  But he really enjoyed it - I think it was better than the chicken noodle soup he had last night.

And, earlier in the day - while he was at the dentist - I got a call from work, asking if I could come in for a few days, since there were several people off, and it was month-end............so for the first time in nine months I headed off to the office this morning.  I had forgotten a lot about their new computer system, but it slowly came back and I actually enjoyed the day - which passed very quickly.

Meanwhile, about the bath - as soon as Poppa and Munchie got away from the kitchen sink I took off Cujee's little diaper and lowered him carefully onto the towel in the bottom of the sink.  I just could not believe how much the little guy loved that bath.  He cooed and smiled and stared up  at me as if I was the most wonderful Nanna in the world. 

He did take a second to glance over at Mommee taking pictures...........

Serious looking little fellow for a moment............but he loved that bath.............and soon afterwards he fell soundly asleep............so I snapped a picture before Mommee took him up to the cradle.

Back to the knitting needles!

Wee Visit from Wee People

Last Wednesday we were happy to have a short visit with our little people and, of course, their beautiful Mommee.

She's looking really great for having a six-week-old baby.  I got little Cujee undressed for a bath and carried him off to the kitchen sink for a water-ey adventure.

Meanwile Munchie kept Poppa occupied with great gusto.  Munchie's affection for Poppa is so cute - he wants to be wherever Poppa is and to be doing whatever Poppa is doing.  So they did lots of fun things together.  They went outside, but once again the playground was too wet to play......so they went to the sandbox.

Then they came in and washed up at the kitchen sink.......

....Munchie loves that part!  He stands on one of the kitchen chairs so he can reach into the sink - and if we don't bring the chair over, he goes himself and gets it.

They watched videos of Toopy and Binoo on the little DVD player Poppa bought for Munchie....

......they went for a shopping spree to get some new Dinky cars, after supper they went back to the kitchen sink to get cleaned up again.....

...........they squeezed in a visit to the playground for a swing, but the slide was still too wet.  The best part of that was when Munchie came back to the house and told me all about it, even about the "little girl" who played with him there.  At bedtime, Munchie got his Elmo jammas on, and they took a few minutes to play with the toys........

....the next morning they had breakfast together.....

Even though Munchie seemed to have a cold while he was here - he had a good appetite and ate all the potato chips I gave him for breakfast!  What???  I'm Nanna - when he's at my house he can have whatever he wants!  (He also had some fruit twisties, cereal and banana - see I'm not totally irresponsible!)

Oh Dear - Cujee is still waiting for his bath ..... I'll get to that soon!

Fridges

This has been the year of the fridges!  First off, our upstairs fridge (on the main floor) started acting up.  It would work fine for a week, and then quit for no apparent reason - only to restart itself after a few hours - just long enough for all the stuff in the freezer to be spoiled!  So, as you know, we bought a new fridge.  Then Kev-Inn's big freezer, which was at his daughter's, quit and he lost a large portion of last year's moose.  Finally (all things happen in three's), Aunt Peggy's fridge started leaking water across her kitchen floor.  After a great deal of trying, Poppa called in an expert who said it would be more costly to fix it than to get a new one.  So we took a picture of Aunt Peggy with her old faithful fridge, which had lasted for more than 20 years..........

The two old girls are looking pretty good hey?  Shortly afterwards, once Poppa had scrubbed the floor all nice and clean........we got another picture of Aunt Peggy with her new toy!

She was quite anxious to get it filled up, and it didn't take long for us to rescue the food from the cooler and get it back into the new fridge.  She seemed quite happy with it and it was nice to see her with something shiny and new!

Early the next week, we took Great-Grandma for an appointment with the eye doctor..........

...and while she was there, Poppa took advantage of the time to go for a haircut, and Squeegie and Taffy waited patiently in the car.

As you can see, Squeegie was a tad bored and Taffy was trying to climb over him to get to me!  You can also see that our weather has cooled down considerably - they have long pants and their jackets on.  Oh well, in another three months we will be heading to Florida!!  Yay!!!  I can picture the villa already!

Yep - my car sitting under the palm trees in the Florida sunshine - can't wait.  But, I digress..........a few days later we had a surprise visit from Uncle Ernie, I caught him with the camera just before he left.  He and Poppa were doing their thing and chatting in the driveway before the final departure.

 Uncle Ernie is doing well and is back to work part-time after a long round of cancer treatments.  We were quite pleased to see him and this picture also shows off his new vehicle!  And - I think I can see a family resemblance between these two brothers - can you see it???

I got some knitting done during this time too...........here is the blanket for that new baby in New York.........showing the edging I had finished up to last Tuesday.

I took this picture in the evening and had two different light sources, which skewed the colour in a portion of the picture - the blue is not the correct colour- but you can see the correct colour in the picture below.  I also didn't take the time to spread the leaves out nicely on the border, I'll do that for the final picture.  I have also started working on the overalls - here is what one leg looks like.

The other leg is commencing nicely.  I work on the lace edging when the TV is boring, and the overalls when I want to pay attention to the TV.  The lace requires looking and counting, the overalls - not so much!

On Wednesday our little grandchildren came to stay for a couple of days with Mommee - and needless to say, the knitting slowed down considerably!  Mommee was looking forward to a break!

We were quite busy for those two days - and we certainly enjoyed the visit!  More details to come soon!