A Week of Goodbyes

Where ever did this week go?!?!  I know I am always lamenting about how fast they seem to fly by.  I posted on Monday, January 19 and here it is Saturday, January 24, 2015.  While I don't feel like I get a whole lot accomplished life seems to rush by before you know it.  It was a week full of good byes a few tears, but small signs of change.

Tuesday morning, I had a message on my cell phone from DH which said---  Grand Am gone. 
He sent it to me while I was at work so I did not see it until I was heading home.  I just sent him a text which said, "Huh?"  Thinking that since it was kind of icy and icky that morning, and the snow was falling that maybe a Grand Am had wrecked in our front yard.  We seem to have several people wreck every winter and end up in our yard.   

DH called me back said something to the effect of darn auto correct and I could instantly tell something was wrong.  DH's grandmother had passed away early that morning at the age of 93, due to complications from a combination of diabetes, and kidney failure.  She has been failing for about 6 months so, and we knew that when they put her in hospice two weeks ago it would not be long. 

DH spent a lot of time with his grand parents growing up.  He actually has an uncle who is only a year or two older than him, and they grew up more like brothers.  Gpa and Gma had a home on Swan Creek just a couple of hundred yards from Lake Erie and DH has fond memories of riding motorcycles, building go carts, swimming, boating, snowmobiling on the creek, ice skating. He loves to tell the story about year the lake and creek rose so high that the water was battering at the old basement door trying to get into the house. DH went to spend time at the rest home with is mom, two aunts and sister to wait for the funeral home to come and pick Grandma up, he tries to be and tough and gruff, but he is a big softy at heart.  Gma had been at that home since it had opened, and almost everyone who worked there stopped by to express their sorrow at her passing. 

Grandma said she was not going to have a service, she just wanted to be cremated because if they didn't want to come see her alive they sure as heck weren't going to come and mourn over her after she passed.  I guess I can appreciate the sentiment.  So we have been kind of just going through the motions for the week.  DH has been on bereavement leave, and to top it off has had a pretty nasty cold. 

Finn update!  Finn got his cast.

Yes he broke his tibia.  Actually he probably broke it a couple of weeks ago when he took a dive off of his brothers' bunk bed steps which he is not supposed to be up on anyway. The children's hospital saw that the bone was already starting to heal and so it had been fractured and he refractured it Sunday night.  Says a lot about the difference between a regular hospital and a children's hospital.  Poor little guy had been hobbling around on a broken leg for over 2 weeks.  Finn is sporting this royal blue cast for a couple of weeks, they told him he could walk on it, but he probably won't want to because it is pretty heavy, and it goes up to mid -thigh.  Later on Finn will get a new cast that is shorter.

Since DH was home, I insisted that he had to do something to keep busy.  I was hoping he would work on his antique tractors which he loves so much, but also meant he was tasked with bringing the family room floor up even with the kitchen floor.  We moved furniture, essentially rearranging the front room, dining room, family room/great room, and the sun room.  Part of the floor was done and my quilter was brought into the main house from the sun room/ mud room.  That was a task in itself.  DH build this for me, and it is solid, and heavy.  I can't wait to get the room cleaned up a bit so I can use it.  I have lots of quilts waiting to be quilted 

I needed a change of scenery and so we moved all of our furniture into the freshly painted dining room, and the dining room table, and china cabinet will be moved into the the great room.  It is nice having a smaller more intimate area to watch TV, and I am closer to my sewing room, so I can sneak off for a bit here and there while DH is watching TV. 

I wrote last week that I have visited Joann's Fabric on Saturday and had made some purchases.

I think I am going to try the spool idea for the 2014 Aurifil quilt blocks.  The red kind of reminds me of the grunge fabric line , and the white was very sweet looking with the little doily looking motifs.  I also bought a couple of yards of blue for my We Support you blog hop piece.

Makes you wonder what I have been doing.  Lots of slow stitching. 

I have 1 1/2 more pieces to finish the embroidery then I can put it all together.  I may have my project done before my day to post!  Which will definitely be a first! Shhh!  I should not say anything to jinx it. 

I also did a bit to help the economy.  Pink Castle Fabrics was having a sale.  I don't know why I even looked I was just curious and I found this cute blogger bundle called Cool Flower Power, and just could not resist how sweet the fabrics were.  I still want to make a swoon quilt and I may just about have enough floral and solids to match to make the quilt. 

I also saw this bright yellow polka dot which had to come and live at my house too! 

Finally I said good bye to a friend at work, and one of the children on my route.  The friend at work, he was hired before me, but didn't get his license until after me by just a few days but he had seniority and a route long before I got one.  I was surprised that he actually took this job it was about 30 miles from his home (he lives nearer to the youngest daughter) and that area is always hiring bus drivers.  Anyway since the holiday break, the kids have been a wee bit rambunctious- kind of like starting all over again from the beginning of the school year, the roads have been bad, some more than others and he decided to leave.  Friday was his last day.  The young lady on my route, I was sad to see leave also.  This young one lost her father over the Christmas holiday.  He had an aneurysm, which brought on a fatal heart attack after spending several weeks in the hospital with pneumonia.  He was only 38 years of age.  They could not afford their modest home anymore and had to move in with her grandparents. 

I wish I had a picture but I can't take one when I am on my bus route, but my sign of hope was that I started to see trees budding up.  A small promise of spring being on its way.