Much too busy

I was surprised to see that it's been almost two weeks since I posted a note here. Time sure is flying by in a big hurry. We did make the trip to Marietta, GA and back home on Saturday, May 24 to attend the graduation party for Christine. While I would have loved to go to her graduation and hear her Valadictory Speech, it just wasn't possible. For one thing, the graduating class was so big that families were given a small number of tickets so large families had to choose who could go and who had to stay home. As it turns out, it was much better going the day after as everyone was relaxed and there wasn't all of the fuss and nerves of graduation day. We were able to visit more and all had a good time. Here is a photo of Christine with her quilt. I'm sure she liked it as we were barely able to get one photo before she disappeared to put it on her bed. I just wish she didn't have that baseball cap on backwards. But, that's a grandmother speaking.

Since we didn't get home until after 1:00 am Sunday, I spent the next day recovering from that trip. I'm getting too old for these 450 mile round trip runs with a 5 hour break to visit and eat. Also, the gas prices are going to put an end to a lot of it also. It cost us just over $100 in gas to make that trip. I'm sure a lot of people are going to be like me and not make that trip very often. My running around sure is going to be cut back, especially now that Howard is retired and gas prices are so high.

During the time after the graduation trip, it seems that we've either been getting the house ready to show or going to doctor offices. Oh, I did teach a machine applique class at a quilt shop about 60 miles away. Until last year, it was the closest one to me. We had one open here in our little town last year. It's very small but has a decent fabric selection. I think their biggest selling item is machine quilting. They have two Voyager mid-arm machines and do machine quilting. They've done two for me, Christine's quilt was one. They do a good job and their prices are reasonable.

The house has been shown twice in the last two weeks and one person really seems interested. I'm not holding my breath but I really would like to have this house sold so we can get moved and settled before Fall. In the meantime, I try to do a little sorting and getting rid of "stuff" everyday and also to do some sewing as often as I can. My sewing and making quilt tops is what's keeping me sane while all of this crazy real estate stuff is going on. I've got Step 5 of the Orange Crush mystery just over half finished. I'll take a photo when I get it finished. The colors in it have changed. From the colors in the scrappy sections and the Spinning Star sections, I was going to call it Blueberry Crumble. Well, it's all changed. Where Bonnie used orange to pull it all together, I've used a mottled lime green and I used pink where she used blue. Now I have to come up with a new name.

Probably the most frustrating thing that has happened during the past week was me waking up Saturday morning with a splotchy red rash all over my chest, shoulders and back. Since all I was doing was being very itchy, I decided to wait until Monday morning to call the doctor but if I had started having any breathing problems or it had spread more, I would have gone to the ER. I got worked in yesterday afternoon and am now on a steroid dose pak, an antibiotic for the places I had scratched in my sleep, and a pill and cream for the itching. It's still there but not as red and definitely not as itchy. Sure wish I knew what I got into that caused it but since I haven't changed anything the doctor thinks it may have been something from outside, possibly when the neighbor was burning his fence rows. But since it doesn't look or act like poison ivy, I still don't know.

If any of you are doing Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery, have you tried the recipe she included for Pecan Cheesecake Pie? Howard made his second one tonight. It's to die for and so easy to make. If you haven't tried it, you have to. Gotta go now and finish my piece of pie.