A Quilt Overnighter - Working On Grand-Princess One's Princess Quilt

I have been working on this for a month. I got the t-shirts washed, laid out, cut, sewn and finished sewing the quilt top quite a bit ago, but I had a rough week not feeling great as I started some new thyroid medication and it messed with my hormones, is giving me heartburn, and I was exhausted but not sleeping.

I was also dealing with other hormone issues and generally not feeling good. I've been having some medical testing, fasting etc. I thought I would get down and spend the last few hours needed to put the batting in and binding the quilt as well as tying it. 

I keep thinking I will go down and work on it, but I keep getting so tired I just opt to go to bed instead of finishing it. I decided to just not go to bed until I finish it as I wouldn't get it finished before her big day! It will be a long night!

I know she is going to love it! So exciting! 

Have a blessed day!

Blessings and Miracles - I Have Good Friends - Feeling Loved

I had a surprise from my friend and her husband this week. They asked if they could come over to visit me. 

They showed up with a gift box. She was crying before she even said anything, and her husband was wide eyed and he wasn’t looking at me trying not to cry. I started crying as she told me that her family gives money to different people or groups every year and they each take turns deciding who to give it to. 

They decided this year that they would like to give it to me because "I am always thinking of others, and I am always serving and choosing to be positive and dealing with the parasites etc." She said it made them sad I couldn’t afford the gold earrings for my ears, and they wanted me to use the money on myself and not give it away, but to do something for me. 

I opened the box and there was $500 fanned out and candy in the bottom of the box. I thank them and then the box shifted, and I realized there was $1000. I was really overwhelmed as I hate taking their hard-earned money. I was so overwhelmed as it is so generous. 

I hugged them both and started crying as they left. I stood sobbing behind the closed door. I gathered myself and went to the mailbox and there was a credit card cash back bonus check for $556 for the year. I looked on the check letter and just before the check rips off, there was a number with a 111.Here is a link to what 111 means to me. 

I then realized that I paid tithing to my church after putting all the bills in my checkbook the other night. I pay ten percent of my income each month to my church. The tithing was the last entry into my checkbook, and I paid $155 dollars in tithing. I got $1556 within 2 days of me paying that tithing. 

It was such an amazing thing! I got 10 times what I paid in tithing. I got enough to survive through this month. I feel so very blessed to have such a wonderful bunch of friends and family who care about me and show me in ways I couldn't imagine! 

Have a blessed day!

Wedding Shower Number Three - Meeting The Grooms Family

We had the last shower this past weekend! I got up really early and on my way through her town, picked up Princess Two. We drove to the city where Princess Three lives, and got there just in time to drop all our stuff off where were would be staying with Princess Three's housemates. 

We then went to the shower and met everyone. It was so nice to finally get to meet the women in her fiance's life. The sister-in-laws planned a "Citrus or lemon" shower. Both of her in-laws recently had babies and I held a baby for most of the time which was heavenly! 

His sister-in-laws were adorable, and it was so hot outside as our local shower was. I wish I could still be a "outdoor at 100-degree" people. 

A funny thing happened while we were visiting. Her fiance has two sister-in-laws. 

They were telling me that they had 4 things in common, but my daughter only had one of the four things in common. They both met their husbands while serving as missionaries. They both have a sister named Jana. They are all older than their spouses. And, their father’s birthday is December 5th. I said, “Princess Threes dad’s birthday is December 5th!"

They all screamed and got excited saying she fits into the family perfectly! It is so sad to me that my daughter had no idea when her father’s birthday is. He has been out of her life for so many year, why would she know it? It made me think how little my girls really know about their father as the youngest was in diapers when we separated. 

It was so cute how excited the in-laws are about having my daughter in their family. I am glad she has people that are excited to be in her life and willing to do anything they can to make her shower wonderful and enjoy spending time with her. It has to be healing to her soul! 

My sister-in-law lives near her and knows the grooms family, so she and one of her daughters showed up, and we had a great visit. Also, Princess Two used to live in that area and worked there for years. She had an old coworker that knows the family show up and was so complimentary of Princess Two. 

After cleaning up, we asked my brothers family if they wanted to join us for sushi, and we all met up for a sushi dinner and it was good to visit with my brother that I don't get to see often. 

I didn't get to spend much time with the grooms mother much as she was being a good hostess, but the next day we were able to visit and I will share about that later. 

It was a good weekend. Have a blessed day!

Wedding Shower Number Two For My Family

We had a shower Friday night for neighbors, friends, and family in our area. Here is a link to that post.

I shared in a few other posts that we have limited time to have showers due to time constraints and them moving to another state for her soon to be husband to finish school. 

With those time constraints, I figured if we needed to have a shower for my family, it would be better to do it before the wedding and if we could plan it the same weekend as one of the other showers, we could use whatever let over food we had for the next shower. 

His family is doing a shower this weekend with her friends doing a bachelorette shower for her, so the entire weekends was out to do one for my family. I suggested that we do my family shower after the friends and neighbor shower. So, we planned as shower at my Dad's house as my step-mother (I call her that only for clarity as she is like a mother to me) is an amazing gardener and her garden always looks so wonderful. 

I knew that she would enjoy hosting as she is the only one that wouldn't have to clean or work more in her yard to host. I did have a sister say she and her girls would like to host but I knew that the time crunch would make it hard to have one, so we just decided to do it even if people couldn't make it due to holidays and travel. 

We drove six hours round trip to go to and host the shower. It was SO hot outside but we were driving Princess Two's new car so at least the six hour drive was comfortable!  We also got to spend time with Princess FIVE on the way up! She chose to ride up with us which was nice. She hasn't been home since Christmas so getting that three extra hours was nice! 

Everyone was wonderful to help set up and clean up after the shower and due to holiday, camps etc, there weren't a ton of people, but one of her friends showed up with her husband and baby and that made her day! She was a bridesmaid for this friend a few years back. 

Several of my nieces brought treats to include with the food we had left over from the shower the night before which made for a nice table of food. My Step-Mother had a punch bowl set up and made slush for the drink, and she pulled out all her platters so I didn't have to pack any to her home. It was so nice to have it all ready to go. 

I planned the shower for 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. knowing everyone had at least 2 hours in either direction and I didn't want to be driving in the dark as with the heat, the deer have been at lower altitudes and I nearly hit two on my last road trip. 

We were super tired when we got home and Princess Two and I went to bed. It was a super hot and long weekend but full of loving friends and family. 

Princess Three said she felt truly loved so both events went well. 

Have a blessed day!

2021 Valentine's Day Part 1 - Feeling Blessed

Having all my girls living many hours away from me, I knew I wouldn't be seeing any of them for Valentine's day. 

I usually did a valentine's treasure hunt on Valentine's Day while the girls were growing up. Here is a link to one of our last treasure hunts. You can see all the treasure hunt videos by typing "Valentine hunt" into the search box at the bottom of the home page. 

I always helped with class parties each year for the girls grade school classes. When the girls got to middle school, I would decorate their lockers for the holiday linked here. By high school, I would take them to lunch sometimes but by that age, they were fairly busy and didn't care as much. They didn't use lockers anymore as that wasn't something useful for the many different buildings they had classes in at that point. 

One thing they didn't ever want to give up on was the treasure hunt. The tradition started when we first moved from the East coast to the West. All of our belongings were in storage and we were renting a semi furnished home of someone that had just passed away. The girls didn't have many of their belongings and I wanted to do something fun for them, so I purchased a bunch of toys and candy and decided to make a treasure hunt for each person to do. 

This was when Princess three was a newborn. When the girls got older and more children were involved, it was just easier to make one hunt and put all the girls treats or prizes together in one group for each stop on the hunt. 

Since I couldn't do that this year, and none of the girls are around, I wanted to send them each a little bag of treats and a little lotion I bought for each of them. Knowing I was having to mail them, I wanted to get the there before the holiday. 

I also had purchased a little lotion for several church friends I haven't been able to see much since Covid hit. I filled them all with treats and then wrote a bunch of cards for each little package. I sent the grandchildren cards with a dollar in it so their mom could take them to the dollar store to get a treat when she has time. I sent them dye free snacks as well. 

Mailing the packages all over cost way more than anything I sent which made me laugh. I decided next year I will just send them each a card with a gift card in it and save myself some money. 

I mailed them on Tuesday worried it may take a few days to arrive and each of them got them in one day which really shocked me as it is usually at least 2 days to get to them. They all enjoyed the gifts but I was sad they opened them and then didn't have anything to open on the holiday. Next time I will have to make sure I tell them not to open it early. 

I delivered my neighbor gifts and the treats I got ready for the neighbors children over the past few days. 

I am glad that our country has a holiday celebrating love! I hope you had a lovely and blessed day!  

Under THESE Stars - It All Began - Printed Star Maps of Your Location and Date

Princess Three is dating the CUTEST Guy ever! I have never seen her so relaxed around anyone she has dated in the past. 

She has known this boy for about four years, but they actually matched on a dating site / app and reconnected about six months ago or so. She was working and he had just graduated with his degree and was heading off to a medical school out of state from where she is living.

With that knowledge, they dated casually, and she dated other men. He left for school, but they found themselves talking every day even with his heavy load of classes. They found that they always have something to talk about, and enjoy spending time together. 

He decided to come for a visit over Thanksgiving. We all really enjoyed his visit. They are so cute together. We were hoping he would be able to come over Christmas as well as it was fun to have more people to play games with and they are so easy going, that it is nice to have them around! 

Because he already had plans with friends for a skiing vacation, he had limited time for holiday fun, so we were all willing to have and celebrate our Christmas early so that he could be here for our holiday together. 

Princess Three gave him a really cute gift for one of his gifts. It is a star chart that is printed up and framed that is the night sky overhead on the night they had their first kiss and WHERE they had their first kiss! Apparently, they can determine the exact star configuration based on the name of the place where you were at any given date and year in history.

People print up the sky the day their kids were born, the day they got engaged, and other big events in life. They will print whatever saying you want under the star chart with the date and location. Say you were at Disney on New Years Eve this year. You would put something like, "Under this sky at the magical kingdom we got engaged. December 31, 2020. 

It is such a cute idea and I could tell that her boyfriend really was touched by the gift. I thought I would share about it as it was a new idea to me and figured some of you may not know about it either! 

The site and link are thenightsky.com. 

Have a Blessed Day!

Gumball Fun After Years Without - Skittles Aren't Working

Princess Five collected Looney Tunes for years. She has a fun collection of Bugs and Tazz items and I found this cute gumball machine years ago. 

When she was in high school, I would buy large bags of skittles and put them in the machine. Because they were small, you didn't need to put money in the bank as you could just jiggle the handle and the skittles would come out. 

When Princess One comes home to visit, her family eats the skittles and at Halloween, I would buy cheap clearance Skittles and refill the machine. 

However, for years I have been looking for real gumballs cheap to fill it up as the colors match the room better and I wanted it for more of a décor item than for a candy dispenser. I have kept an eye out for many years to find the small gumballs. I bought some on clearance at Family Dollar years back but they were stale when I opened them, the outside was chipping off. It was frustrating not being able to find them. 

I keep checking the stores and at Christmas, I bought some gumballs but when I opened them, they were green and red. I bought some at Easter, but when I bought them and opened them, they were in the shape of Easter eggs in pastel colors. You can't see them in the containers, so I have purchased them many times and find they aren't what I am looking for, so I have been waiting. 

I didn't want to spend a ton ordering online or bulk, so I have just been keeping my eyes open for a good deal and today was the day! 

Princess Five and I were mailing a package to one of her missionary friends, and we went to the store and in a cart near the checkout, my life changed for the good! Princess Five didn't want to get them saying the Skittles were fine. I didn't think they matched well and really just wanted a full gumball machine in the room as more of a décor item. 

I was super excited that the bags were quite large for only $1. I have never seen them for sale in the store and was taken back that they had them in the clearance cart since I have never seen them for sale. 

She reminded me that funds are tight, but I told her that I don't eat out, I don't go the movies, I don't splurge on things for myself, and that I have been looking for these for years and wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity. 

I was so excited to fill up the machine! I removed the skittles and a few were crushed and stuck in the machine. I washed the glass and cleaned the parts. We had a few struggles putting it back together, but finally figured it out. We got it working and I LOVE how it looks on the shelf. The colors match the room so much better and the gumballs are actually the good flavored ones that each taste different. 

When I was young, my favorite ice-cream flavors were bubble gum and licorice. When my dad would take me on our "date" night once every 8 months each month was a new child) when it was my turn, I would always go get a double scoop of those two flavors of ice cream. 

I LOVED gumballs and had my own machine when I was young. Today I popped a few in my mouth and started blowing bubbles. We used to have bubble blowing contests when I was younger with my siblings. We had some really epic bubbles! 

I think I've still "got it" when you look at the bubbles I blew. They got bigger each time I tried. I was worried to go any bigger as I didn't want it in my hair! 

Have a Blessed day and stay safe!

Talking to A Princess In NJ For the Last Time Together - Maybe

We had a wonderful Christmas Day today. We slept later than we ever have on a Christmas Morning. 

We stayed up late working on different projects so none of us were worried so much about getting up early, and I didn't have Princess One and the grandchildren this year, so we were all happy sleeping in until later. 

I woke earlier, but went back to sleep for another hour. After waking, I visited with Princess Three for an hour or more before we went and woke up Princess Four. 

We did our "line up" in the morning,(see posts about that here) and a "Trail of candy" ritual and decided to include Princess Five in our line up by holding up a photos and a sweat shirt for her. It was fun! 

Princess One video chatted us with the grandchildren mid-day and Princess Five had her family call at 3 p.m. our time. It was a very fun call, and we enjoyed visiting.It wasn't until we were off the call, when Princess Four asked me how it felt to have my last "missionary" call? 

I thought about Mothers Day when the missionaries also get to video chat with the entire family, and thought that this may be my last video call, but in looking up the day that Princess Five will be arriving home, we found out this week that she will be arriving home May 12, 2020 and Mothers Day this year is May 10th! 

I may get another video call with the entire family after all! ha ha. Looking at all those cute faces on video is so fun! There is a bit of a delay but it is still good fun. 

Doing Our Favorite Christmas Tradition - Singing and Passing Out Candycanes

My girls came home for the holiday a bit early so they could help me with a few projects I wanted to work on this week. 

For many years, we have gone to the local hospital, care center, and rehabilitation centers and sung to the patients. We sing their favorite Christmas Carol or their favorite hymn (Easter). We also give out a gift or treat. I took stuffed animals, keychains and candy canes with us and shared with the patients and the workers at those places. 

Princess Four says this is her favorite tradition that we do. Some years we can't get out if people are sick or we have the kids, but most years, at least some of us get out to share. We had some cute comments and one man sang along at the top of his lungs with his arms moving like he was leading a choir. Some sang along, others listened and some shed a tear. It is how it goes most years but for us, it is just part of our Christmas Holiday and other holiday events! Caroling is something we enjoy as we have been blessed with good voices thanks to many talented ancestors! It's in the genes. ;-) 

Here are a few links to some of our posts from other years! I usually forget to take a picture and only remembered on our way out of the last place tonight. I should have got us singing. We sounded fairly good by the last place having warmed up on the first two places. ha ha. 
Here is 2011 for Easter.
Here is me posting about it in 2010.
Have a Blessed day full of Carols!

How To Remove Patches / Names Off Of Letterman Jacket / Coat

A few years back, I found a nearly new letterman jacket in the women's section of a second hand store in my daughters school colors for $15. It was a women's cheer style jacket and my daughter was a cheerleader at the time.

I took a chance and purchased the jacket for about $15 figuring it was a wool coat and would keep her warm and was cute even if I couldn't get the patches off the jacket. It was surprisingly easy to remove the patches off the jacket and she wore the coat regularly.

I found another men's XL letterman's jacket at a second hand store which was NEW with the tags on it. Because of my past experience with the other jacket, I knew I could easily remove the patches from the jacket and have myself a nice wool and leather jacket. 

While at the store, a woman suggested I leave the M on the jacket and make it into a Mickey Mouse Jacket and maybe put a mickey patch on the front or back. I thought that was a great idea so I bought the coat. Since the coat had been there for a month, it had been marked down three times and they marked it down even more when I asked so I was able to get the coat for $20. 

Just the patches on the coat would cost more than $20. Similar coats on Amazon that are only 80% wool are $149 but they do have some leather on them so I am guessing this is near a $200 coat. It is really a quality piece and I think it was well worth what I paid. 

I made a video about how to take the patches off a letterman's jacket but for some reason the sound was bad for the first 30 seconds or so and I think maybe one of the jacket sleeves was in the way of the microphone. 

Basically, you take a seam ripper and go from the TOP of the patch so you don't rip into the wool or fabric of the coat. Find a thread of the zig-zag stitching and slide the seam ripper under that thread stitching and use the seam ripper to cut that thread. NEVER go into the fabric of the coat with the seam ripper in any way or even poke through in a downward way with the ripper as you can damage the coat. 

Seam rip a few threads in a row and then you can start to lift up the patch and use the ripper to easily cut through the thread but only do that above the coat and never near or on the coat fabric. By lifting up the item by holding onto the patch, the thread will pull a bit and then you can get the seam ripper under it easily and cut the threads quickly. Once the patch is off, pull out all the cut thread from the fabric and you can use packing tape to pick off any thread fibers still stuck onto the coat quickly and easily. 

Once all the threads are off, you can use your fingernail to rub the fabric a bit to fill in any needle stitching holes left in the fabric. Just rub your nail gently over the fabric and the holes will disappear. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Have a Blessed Day!