And Today

I've been working a lot at Macy's, in fact I'm a little miffed at them.  They knew I didn't want full time, but I have it anyway.  I'm supposed to be able to schedule myself, but that's kind of a laugh.  If you don't pick a shift on a "key" day, they will schedule you and you may not like it.  I thought I had everything scheduled, but yesterday, after spending 45 minutes at the acupuncturist because of a devastating spasm in my neck, my boss calls and informs me that since I didn't schedule on the key days she did it for me.  Never mind that I had no clue when these days are-there is nothing on the scheduler that shows it.  I almost cried-I was in so much pain, which the acupuncturist attributes to the black Friday ordeal-she scheduled me to work at a time when I'm supposed to be at a luncheon given by a local charity in honor of all the city's church secretaries.  And the luncheon is supposed to be in my church!

She called me back and told me she had switched my shift with another girl's.  I can go to the luncheon, but now I have to work until midnight!  My family is up in arms-they want me to quit.  I think I will, I am too old for this, and my church job comes first.  Well actually, my health comes first and it is being compromised.  Millie is really urging me to give my notice-which I have made up my mind to do, just have to write up a resignation and deliver it.  I'm worried I won't get to go to the grandkids' programs, plus if I work all the shifts I have scheduled and my church days I will work six days next week!

My neck is improving but it's slow.  AI wants me to come back for another treatment, but I really can't afford it.  So far all the money I've earned has gone for acupuncture.

On the upside, tomorrow morning Millie and I are taking Grace and Sydney to a children's matinee of The Nutcracker.  Sam won't go, says he's too manly.  Sydney tried to talk him in to going and Sam tried to talk Syd into doing something "manly" with him and Jim.  These kids are too funny!  Then Stan and I have a Christmas party tomorrow night.  I love Christmastime!

Here and There, Bits and Pieces

Boy, working a second job keeps one busy!  Let's see-what have I been up to.  Well, first I've been working quite a bit at Macy's-last week was 30 hours in addition to my work at the church.  My knees are complaining loudly so I'm not sure if I'm going to make it through Christmas or not.  Don't think I'm going to go on after that, I have too many fish to fry.  I did buy some support socks yesterday from the "As Seen on TV" shelf at Walmart.  I put them on when I got home just to see how they would be, and I think they'll be a welcome addition to my work wardrobe.

There is some sewing and knitting going on.  I'm still working on Stan's goose decoy bag, can't forget to take pictures of that, plus I still have the Christmas blankets waiting to work on.  Then yesterday Stan asked if I would make him a polar fleece stocking hat for goose hunting.  I got the fabric out, but after black Friday weekend at Macy's I was too wasted to whip anything up.  Hopefully today.

I did make the treat bags for the church Christmas program.  I took over for the elderly lady that did them for years.  I wanted them to be done early just in case I got backed up, which is pretty common for me, ha ha!

Fun and quick!

Trying again to finish this post-I got rid of some pictures and resized the ones I wanted to share.

Uno before Thanksgiving dinner.

A beautiful place setting!

 

I finished the hat order.  I made five and my friend picked out two.  I have three left that I think I'm going to post on our town's Facebook page.

I got the goose bag done, but the straps aren't long enough, so alterations are in my future with that one, and I made him a reversible hat-one side brown and the other snow camo for when he's goose hunting with snow on the ground.  Not the prettiest but he says it works very well.

I'll finish this post and move on to another.  Still haven't decided what to do about the picture thing, but I'll figure it out.

Winter Came!

It started snowing yesterday, and by 4:00 this morning we had 14".  Why do I know what it was like at 4:00?  Because a transformer blew (loudly) and the power went out-for 5 hours!  It bumped first, and I decided to get up and make coffee, then the power went out for sure.  The coffee was just done brewing so I put it in a carafe to keep it hot and waited....  The nice thing I found out is that my Kindle Fire makes a great flashlight-better than regular flashlights!  Came on at 8:00.  Stan went out at 6:00 to start shoveling.  It took him a while what with resting and eating and breaking the shovel handle!  The neighbor finally came over with his little tractor to help him finish.

Enjoy a little Montana snow:

6:00 in the morning.

8:00-after the power came back on.

I'm done already-I sure wish I could talk my winter loving hubby into moving south!

Another Halloween Bites the Dust

Just popped in to apologize for not posting.  Not sure why-I've been sewing and knitting-but life seems to get in the way these days.  Just thought I'd drop off these shots of some curtain climbers in costume.

The ninja. (With a dog sniffing the candy in his bag.)

Butterfly

Sam spends all his time crawling on the ground, throwing toy grenades and rolling for cover!

I start working in earnest at Macy's on Saturday.  Not too many shifts yet, it's still early in the season.  I could have worked there tomorrow and Friday but those are the days I work at the church. 

Wow, I'm tired.  I can't believe tending to trick or treaters could be so tiring!  We set a record this year-114 kids.  The weather was so nice-70 degrees F-everybody took advantage of it.

Family Fun

Our nephew Paul was here from Seattle with his daughter, Julie.  So we had to cram as many family members as we could into my sister-in-law's house yesterday.  All four of Stan's siblings were there, plus a couple of my kids and some cousins and second cousins.  We had a great dinner and a good visit.  But the fun started after almost everybody had left:

Stan, Steve and Paul hanging out and catching up around the fire pit.

Paul's daughter Julie.

Sydney and Julie playing ball.  It was nice that they got to play together, last time Julie was here she was only one.

Then the cousins, who hadn't seen each other in three years, decided to get crazy and play war with the kids on their shoulders.  We laughed so hard!

The daddies "riding" on the kids' shoulders.

 Paul's dad got involved in the game, but he won't let me share his pictures, he was a bit embarrassed!  But we had a ball watching the hijinks!

In other news, I have an interview at Macy's tomorrow.  You may remember that instead of doing the sick time paperwork over and over, I just resigned with the idea of returning.  Well, I should never have gone into the store!  I was kidnapped by a couple of managers and asked if I was ready to come back to work.  (Puleeeeese!)  So I did the online application and scheduled an interview.  I'm going to have to be firm-I don't want full time and I don't want to give up my job at the church-that's my retirement job.  Besides, my Social Security starts in February and I don't want to earn so much that it cuts my payments.

I have a ton of sewing to get done before Christmas, so I really have to budget my time.  I'm almost finished with the hats I've been knitting, so that will be out of the way.  The kids all want fleece blankets instead of pajamas so that's on my list.  I'm hoping to pick up the fleece for them tomorrow after my interview.

How About a Little Montana Beauty?

Stan came in the house after a trip to the bank and told me to grab my camera.  We drove a half mile down the road to get a clear shot.  So cool with the new snow on the mountains.

Bikers for Jesus

The sewing I did today:

 

The neighbor lady just got married.  Her new husband is a retired minister, and now the two of them, both in their 70's, hit the road on their Harley and minister to bikers.  Darling couple, and I'm so happy for her.  She's a longtime friend and has worked way too hard her entire life.  You have to go through the Christian Motorcyclist's Association training to earn these patches.

I barely got the patch on the right in, but I couldn't sew down the one on the left, not even my old workhorse Viking with the low gear would penetrate all the layers.  I got the rest on fine, though.

They spent a week in Sturgis, SD, where they have the big international Harley Davidson convention.  They visited hospitals and ministered to the hurting and injured.  LeRoy said she is a natural-I'm not one bit surprised!