Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

This is what being a grandparent is all about! We had all 9 of our grandkids here today for christmas. They sounded like there was 1000 kids here. The youngest one never walk when they can run and the don't talk when they can yell. I am ready for them all to go home. Thats not going to happen till tomorrow sometime. It is nice when you can get all of the family together.
I made them all stand together for a picture. It is the only one I have of all 8 of them. Alex, Mike, Brittany, Korey, Nick, Ryan, Gabby and Alex is holding the baby, Zoey. Maybe if Alex comes home every christmas I will be able to take yearly pictures.
I haven't moved in to the barn yet I wanted to get christmas over first. Butch is getting me another big cabinet for christmas because he said what I have is not big enough. We will go pick it up some time next week.
I hope everyone had a great day. I did even if it was loud.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

My barn

THE BARN IS DONE!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The End Is Near!!!

.Butch got his power chair about a month ago. He likes it alot. He doesn't use it much because our upstairs is not very big and he can just zoom around in the wheelchair. He wanted the powerchair for outside and when we go away but at 250 pounds we can't get it downstairs by ourselves. And our car won't carry the extra weight of a lift and I am not buying a different car. The cats like to sleep in it.
These are the 3 stooges that put up my dry wall. Mike, Donny and my son Shawn. I laughed my butt off. It looks pretty good though.

My back wall where my cutting station will be. My lights are in and working on all three sides. My airconditiioner is in and working. Walls are all painted for the last time. I bought my paint at Lowe's and I always check out the discount paint table and found a can of yellow that was almost the color I wanted so I got it. Well he needed another can and I didn't know what color it was because it wasn't on the can sooooo back to Lowe's I went and back to the discount table where I found another can that was just about the same color and I bought it. It ended up being closer to the color I wanted. My walls look very good.
Mike started to paint my trim and I was having second and third thoughts about having lime green with my wall color. It didn't look very good out in the sunlight. I liked it but I didn't at the
same time. After about 4 coats of paint it got better. At that point I said the heck with it, and decided that was what was going in there. Today the trim started to go in the barn and I really like it. My carpet was laid yesterday and I forgot to take a picture and it was covered up with tarps. All that is left to do is the rest of the trim and the covers on the plug ins and the light switchs. Looks like I can start moving in maybe sunday. It will be so nice to go out there to sew and not have all my helpers. And they won't be in there using my things to cut up sheets, pillowcases. and their
One of my finnished windows. I have to come up with something to do with the breaker box which is so ugly. Hopefully the next pictures I show will be all done ones.


















Saturday, November 14, 2009

For Judy

Judy told me today at quilt club to update my blog. When I said I just did she then told me to add pictures, so here Judy these are for you. This picture is of Butch and grand daughter Brittany at the Ohio State/Michigan game party about 5 years ago. This was such a good picture of them that I made it into an 8x10. It is easy to see how much she loves her grandpa.
My favorite car! I had wanted a VW Bug for as long as I remember. Of course back when I was younger I wanted a yellow one with purple interier. Yuck! I did finialy buy my yellow one but it was black inside. Nick really liked it too. He still asks me when we can go and get it back. I miss it too. He still calls me the bug grandma.
My last hours of work went well yesterday. No tears!
Quilt club was fun today. We worked on the blocks for our 2010 raffle quilt. It is going to beanother great looking quilt. If this looks funny when I post it it is because my puter is acting funny. I can't explain what it is doing but it just isn't right. The barn is sanded and the primer is on so the painting will start tomorrow. I am going to go pick out my trim and carpet tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Just checking in

Not too much to update on the barn, He did get my airconditioner in the wall and has started to sand the walls but not much else is going on out there. I reminded him tonight that he said last week that it would be done by the time my job ended. That is Friday at 12:00. I don't think he's going to make it. I have 14 hours left to work. They told us yesterday that we are done at 12:00 on Friday, not to start anything that we can't finish by then. At 12:00 we are to shut our machines off and take our personal things and leave. But we are to go to Ryan's and they are buying our lunch and paying us till 2:30. Then we get our bonus for staying on till the end with our last checks. Am I going to cry? Probably. I'm allowed, I have worked there for 33 years and this is going to be very different for me. I hope I can find a new one that is easy and pays alot. I hope I don't have to say---Do you want fries with that? On a good note I will have lots of sewing time. If I get off my butt and get to it. And sometime I will get to move to the barn. I am going to start to put my cabinets together. I have to if I want to put my fabric in something.

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Barn, What Else!

The barn is coming along nicely now. Handyman has all the mud on the walls now. It needs sanded, painted and the lights, heaters, ceiling fan hooked up and the airconditioner installed. I have to find some carpet too. Then it will be moving month. I say a month because of how much I have to put in there. Handyman says that it will be done by the time my job ends. That is next Friday, the 13th [does not sound good]. I don't have a good feeling about that day. I don't want to start job hunting!!!! I don't know how to job hunt!! I have a feeling that I will be really bummed out over this. It hasn't been to bad yet. Maybe I will just crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head and stay there.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Paint colors

I was asked a couple of weeks ago what color I was going to paint my walls so here is what I have been thinking about. I was going to paint the bottom of the walls a dark slate blue and the top some shade of yellow but I have been rethinking that. Now I am going to paint the whole wall with a light creamy yellow. My trim will be bare wood, I like how it ages. My ceiling will be white. Then I am going to paint sawtooth stars on the walls and in the center of them I am going to put my cow wallies that I got from my secret sister a few years ago. I am not sure what color the stars will be yet. Maybe a lime green to match the fabric that my Aunt Mary got me. It is lime green and has cows in it. I am thinking that it might end up being my curtains. Carolyn from quilt club got me some of the same fabric so I have plenty of it. Someone also asked me what color was the outside of the barn, well here is the thing I threw away the tops of the first 2 cans of paint so when I needed more I had to take the can in so they could do a match up of it and it is not exactly the same shade and I don't know what color it was to begin with. I like it better than the first paint. Sorry I couldn't help with that.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Not a update

I was going to give a update on the barn but I have nothing to report. I paid my handyman on monday and he hasn't been back since. Usually when I give him money he only stays away for 1 or 2 days. I know he helped my brother for 2 days with a garage door opener but what happened to the other days?? So the barn is just sitting there with one coat of mud on its walls and nothing else done. The 2 or 3 week job has turned into 2 months. Hope it gets done before my job ends so I can start moving in when I will have nothing else to do. Kare, are you still willing to help? I want to be in before the snow flies. Then I can be out there all nice and warm and cozy till I have to pee then I will have to run into the house [no potty out there]. Hmmmmm maybe I should be planning an addition for the future.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Quilting Barn Update

THE BARN NOW HAS POWER HOOKED UP TO IT!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Zoey, Kimmie, and of course a barn update.

Our baby girl is getting so big. She is already crawling and pulling herself up on the furniture so she can stand up. Zoey is going to be a mover, she is never still unless she is sleeping.
My secret sister wrapped my gift in a brown grocery bag this time and Kimmie claimed it for her hidding place. She hid in it for about an hour. Yes she does have blue eyes and yes she is crosseyed. She looks funny at night when her eyes are crossed and red. Sometimes at night depending on the light her eyes turn red.

This is the front wall of the barn.


This is the back wall.



This is the left side.



This is the right side. Can you believe it I have walls. He is going to start mudding it tomorrow. They are also going to hook the wire into the house tomorrow. I will have heat and lights and all of the good stuff in there. My secret sister gift was a new hot pot for my tea water and I am going to save it to use in the barn. Now all I need is a potty for after I drink all of the tea. My brother says that I already need to add on. It is getting closer to moving day.[or weeks] This is getting so exciting. Other news my next to the oldest grandson, Mike, came over tonight with a friend of his and helped me put the lid on the pool. Thanks Mike. Our plant manager called a meeting with us yesterday and told us that the new company has moved our last day forward. We now get to work untill Nov.13. Great for us we get another paycheck before they boot us out of the door. Brittany was home over the weekend. She told us all about her college. She sounds like she likes it but is having some trouble finding kids that want to do something besides party. I told her not to worry that they are out there and they will find each other. I have a care package just about ready to send her. I am putting little things in it that I know she will like.





Saturday, September 26, 2009

Show us your stash and Quilting Barn Update

This shows a little bit of stash to the right of my machine.
This shows some more to the left of my machine. I only get half of the smallest bedroom that we have.

Here is the bulk of my stash back in that corner of our garage, back there where I can not get to it. I haven't seen inside of those totes for about 6 years. I know it is in there but I can't get to it to fondle it without killing myself. Are you sure that you want to help me with this mess, Kare.


This is my handyman's helper. He says that it really helps.



This is another helper of his. All I hear it do is yelp alot. It is cute but my cats are bigger than she is.




My handyman running the pipe for my main wire that goes to the barn






The framework for the loft. I am going to get those under the bed storeage boxes and use them up there.





My breaker box with some of its wires hooked up. The barn is getting closer to being done. They have some insulation up in the ceiling. I bought the airconditioner this morning. I got it at 20% off because I got the display one.






Saturday, September 19, 2009

Quilting Barn Update

My handyman has started on my barn, inside now. He has the loft framed in and is moving some outlets up from where I had them put. He said that where I had them put I wouldn't be able to use them. He was right because that is where I am putting my cutting table. He has the bracket for my ceiling fan put up. Butch and I went to Lowes the other night and I got the fan and the baseboard heaters and I was going to get the airconditioner but they told me that they are going on clearance so I could save a bunch of money on that so I waited. I am hoping that it is all done by the time my job ends so I can move in. The way he is working it should be done before that. I will have to paint my stars on the walls before I move in. I have to put my cabinets together before I move my fabric in. I hope they are big enough cause I have a lot of fabric. Some I haven't see for awhile. I hope to take inside pictures tomorrow.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

My Work and anything else I can think of

On August 26th they called a meeting at work. Then they left the boot drop! At the end of October they are closing the doors for the last time. That means unemployment again only this time I really have to look for a new job. Of course we can relocate if we want to but who wants to go to Texas or Oklahoma. Not me I [and my husband ] couldn't leave the littles. We wouldn't want to miss that much of their young lives. Now we could pack them up and take them with us but we like it when we can have them for a while and then send them home and besides all of that their moms wouldn't like it if we took them. Well maybe they would! This is going to be a big change for me, I have done the samething for 33 years and thinking about change is very hard for me. I really like what I do and then I think about all of the friends I have made there and it makes me sad because I will probably never see some of them again and some I will only see if I run into them at Wal-mart. On the other hand work on the inside of my barn will start within the next week. I can't hardly wait. I know it will be a wonderful place to go. It will be all mine. I know that I will be suprised when I see all of my fabric again. I haven't seen some of it for years, not since Butch put it in totes in the garage. I see lots and lots of scrap quilts coming from the barn. I used to buy only 1/3 of a yard of fabric when I found something I liked. Now I know better and I buy more. I know some of you are saying to yourself that you want to come and play with my stash, I mean organize my stash. That is going to be fun and it sounds like I will have plenty of time to do it. I have all of the paint for the inside picked out and Aunt Mary gave me fabric that is perfect for the curtains[lime green with cows]. I plan to paint quilts blocks on the walls and I have cow wallies that I am going to put in the center of the blocks. I think the blocks are going to be a sawtooth star. I am really getting excited about it all. When we built the barn we didn't think it was going to take this long to finish it[2 years] but it is all coming together. Brittany is leaving for college next weekend. The family is going to all go to dinner with her next Sat. night. Butch is going to bake her some cookies to take with her. I am planning some care packages for her. I have thought of some things that I can send her that she will like getting in the mail. Shawn has a job. He has been off of work since January. He worked really hard and got his GED and then went looking for a job and it paid off. He started last Tuesday. The starting pay is almost what he was making before he got laid off at his other job and he worked there for 4 years. The best part of the new job is that he likes it.

Friday, August 21, 2009

The Red Barn

This is my handyman, Donny my brother-in -law. I tried to zoom in but this is as close as I could get from the deck. He has been getting it painted again. I did it the first time but the primer bled through the red. It looks much better now. He will start working on the inside next month sometime.
Here it is all painted red and white. He does nice work. I can't wait till the inside is done and I can move my quilting things in. I will be able to go in and lock the door and have my things right where I left them the last time I used them. I won't have to look for my pieces when I need them because the grew legs and walked away from where I left them. My machine will still be threaded when I go to use it. WOW it sounds great.

We planted some dalias this year and they got huge. Well this one did. It is alot bigger that what it looks in this picture. The other ones look puny compared to this one. We used to plant them at our other house but they never grew this big. All of our other flowers are wilting. It has been pretty dry here and even though we water them every day it is not the same as a nice steady rain. We did get some rain this week but not enough.


The grandkids start school Sept. 1. All of them go this year except for Zoey. Nick will be in grade 3, Ryan in grade 2, Korey in grade 1, and Gabby in Kindergarten. The oldes one Brittany will be a freshman in college and Mikey will be a senior in High school. Alex is living in Chicago.



I haven't been doing any sewing [no suprise there] but I have 14 blocks that I need to get done before the 29th. That is when the family quilters come here again. We are doing row quilts this year. We are taking turns picking a block and then we each have to do 7 of them and give one to everyone for their quilts. So far we have a tree block, a star, a cardtrick, and an album block. It is my turn to pick a block and I have picked a house block. After this month we will only have Lisa and Terry's blocks to do and then the fun begins, we get to put them together. I think I know how I am going to do mine. I want it to fit my queensize bed so I have to put sashing in it or some kind of pieced borders. I am leaning to the pieced borders and I was thinking about doing a couple of rows made with smaller blocks.




Two weeks ago my pump quite working and then the search was on. I had to find a pump that wouldn't break the bank. I found a 1 1/2 horse powered one at In The Swim, on line. I could only find 1 horse ones in town here. It was the same price as the 1 horse and I didn't have to pay shipping, just handling. So if you have a pool and need something for it check out In The Swim. My pool is clean again.
This post is getting pretty long so I am going to quit rambling on an let you go for tonight. Have a great week and I hope I will post again soon.




Saturday, August 1, 2009

Brittany was over last night and Nick came running out to give her a big hug. It shows how big he is getting. He is half of Brittany's age and almost as tall as her. Of course she is not that tall herself. Nick misses her when he hasn't seen her for awhile. Most of the time she stops over he is not here. She is busy getting ready to go to college. It sure is going to be different for her to go away, for her and us. We are used to her just popping in when she has time. She is going to Ohio State so she will be able to come home often.
Nick turned 9 on July 18 and we had a small party for him. All of his brothers and sisters was here. There was only 7 kids here[2 of them are under 1 so they didn't do anything] but they sure made a mess.

His cake was a spiderman one. It was yummy.


The raffle quilt that my guild does every year is done now. I put the last stitches in it Friday after work. I had to take it to Carolyn so she could take it to the Berlin Hights basket festival. We set up there to sell tickets. I am very happy at how it turned out. I really wanted to keep this one.It is king sized but if the winner has a smaller bed it will just drape more over the side.

Now I need to get busy and work on some of my stuff. I have lots of starts that I need to finish. Some of my quilts only needs the borders yet before the go to the quilter and some of them needs a whole lot more. For some reason that I don't know I have been a starter and not a finisher. I have to get over that. Some of my things I have cut everything out and never sewed a stitch on it.

I did go back to work about 5 weeks ago. We worked 1 week for the old company and then started working for the new company. We are now owned by Cover Craft. We still have no benefits and still don't know if they are going to leave us in Fremont or not. The only good things so far is they are not taking 10% of our pay any more and we are working steady 5 days a week.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Grandma Hoy

On saturday July 11, 2009 Ardis Hoy passed away after a very short illnes. Grandma had just turned 90 in May. This is her with my brother, Den and I at the graveside service for Dad. Our family is getting smaller and it wasn't that big to begin with. Grandma and Grandpa only had 2 boys. Dad and Uncle Jerry. They each had 2 kids. Lucky me I was the only girl untill my cousins had kids. Grandpa passed away a long time ago.
This picture is of Grandma and Grandpa. I think it was taken after they were married. Nice looking couple. They were married over 50 years before Grandpa died. I am glad I have great memorys of times with them. Grandma always made me feel special and I was to her because I was her only girl. She used to do things for me that she didn't do for the boys. She is the one that taught me how to crochet. If anyone got any potholders from Mom or me she is the one that made them. My Grandma was very special to me and I will miss her for the rest of my life.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Kitties and babies

This is Kimmy our other cat. She was helping me on the puter the other night. More like getting in the way. She usually lays on top of the quilt rack that I have next to the desk when I am on the puter. We got both kitties at the Humane Soceity about 5 years ago.
This is Zoey enjoying one of Grammy's quilts. She has gained about 3 pounds now. Now she feels like a real baby. She was too small when she was born. She is 6 weeks old. Her mom went back to work this week so her daddy is getting to know what its like to have a baby and take care of it for a few hours at a time. It will do him good! He wasn't around the other ones much when they were that small. He was working then. Now if only they had their own place. Maybe some day.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Mostly Brittany

Today was the day for darling granddaughter,Brittany. Done with school till Sept. when she goes off to Ohio State. She ended up 6th in her class. My hope for her is that she ends up being what ever she decides to be. And what she will be happy doing. To me she in not old enough to be out of high school, it seems like yesterday that I was holding her as a little baby.
This is our family back row is grandson Mikey, stepson Mike, me, stepdaughter Rita,[Brittany's mom] and her other grandma Kathy. Front row is Gary,[Brittany's dad] Butch,[my husband] and last but not least is Brittany. Kathy is my husbands xwife and Rita and Mike are their kids.

I tried to get the whole class in the picture at the same time and I couldn't from where I was sitting. Sorry about the fence but it was in front of me and they didn't want us to stand there and block anyones view. We had a great day for it today, we was a little worried because the said we was going to get rain but we didn't. If it would have been inside each grad could only have 4 guest so I wouldn't have gotten to go. Worked out well for that.



Saturday, June 6, 2009

Here you go Kare, pictures of what I have been doing. I have been making little stars out of the coffee fabric that Sue and Jane gave us at the retreat. When the stars are done I will sew them into 2 little quilts. The stars are only 3 . The quilt will be about 12" when finished. I got my little bowties quilted and bound. I had fun with these. I would like to make a bedsize quilt with these but it would take forever as they are only 2" apiece. The blue quilt is 10"x10" and the rust one is 14"x12". I was working on things to sell at an outdoor craft show in July that I do with my friend Pat but I can't do it this year because I will have the family quilters here that day. We did that show last year and I did really well at it. I only sold a couple of things but they were some of my bigger things so I made money at it.

I made Zoey a blanket out of flannel that is covering her and grandpa on the couch. It has a different print on the other side. Sammy kitty is cuddling with them. Right now Kimmy is on the puter table to help me do my blog. She thinks that she is Queen of the house. NOT!


This was a busy week for me. On Tues. I took Butch for his eye exam. He has been complaining that he was having trouble seeing out of his right eye. Well he really was.He has Macular Degeneration. Really bad. On Wed. I had to take him to Toledo to the eye clinic. He had to be there at 9:15. They did more test on his eye and then he had to get a shot in his eye. He has to go back every 6 weeks for another one. They don't know if he will get all of his sight back but they can keep it from getting worse. We didn't get home till 4:30 that afternoon.
On Thurs. I went with Mom to Columbus to take her dog to Medvet. He has cancer and will start treatment next Tues.
On Fri. Butch woke me up because his kidney stone was on the move. He has had them for a while but they haven't moved for a long time. I was going to take him to his Dr. in Toledo but he didn't think he could ride that far so I took him to the ER here in town. They did test and said that yes it was his stone and gave him something for the pain said that it is small enough for him to pass it on his own and then would not let him go untill he peed for them. That was at 4:00. At 6:00 he told the that they could cath him so we could leave. Finnialy at 7:30 we got to go home after a stop at Wal-mart for a script for him. That is why we have trouble on vacations in the car, he never has to take a potty break and I have to alot.
The kids are out of school now Friday was the last day for them. Nick gets to go to third and Korey goes to first. Gabby gets to go to kindergarden next year.
Being laid off has got me all messed up. I can't remember what day it is or even what month it is as you could tell from 2 posts ago. I have that all fixed now and I hope this post is right. With me you never know.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

OOPS!

I looked over my last post again and I still had it wrong. The flood was May 27 not March or April. I think I have it right now. Sorry!

Monday, June 1, 2009

We had water everywhere

On May 27 the rains came. The weather service issued a flash flood warning for Fremont OH.



The top two pictures show our neighbors back yard and ours. His on the left and ours on the right. The next one shows the neighbors down the road. This is the first time that the creek flooded into our yard like that.

This shows the flood on the street that we have to drive on to get to our road. I usually get stuck on the wrong side at least once a year and have to wade home. Nick was with me once and he thought it was the funniest thing to do. The first time it flooded after we moved here I flooded my car because I didn't think it was that deep. It was not as bad as this time. This time DH was stranded on the other side with me. Shawn waded through the part that wasn't too deep and helped me get his dad and the wheelchair through some back yards so I could get him home. We still had to wade through some but it was only ankle deep. If you look at the bottom picture to the left of the stop sign you can see the back of a car that was parked on the street, it was in up to the bottom of the windows. It no longer works. The stop sign is on my street. It was chest deep past the car that got drowned.
Sorry I just looked over what I wrote the other day and discovered that I had put in March instead of May, I have changed it.