Should we catch up here?
Good morning. We're getting kind of a late start. We've been up most of the morning, but have come in and out of tasks and have had some sleeping at the keyboard. I'm not sure why that happens, just does. We're pretty much through the coffee pot this morning though Rich had something to do with that. He's gone now and has been for a couple of hours. He has to do two games this morning for 11 year olds. He said he'd be back by 12:30-1 pm. It's about 9:15 now.
I think we're pretty much caught up with our FB. We haven't done a sewing entry yet and we're about 8-9 days behind in this blog. I'm going to go through what's happened in this last time frame a little quickly if I can. First part is that we've been in and out of Dr. appointments. First Dr. M. was gone and then we went, and then we had meetings, and now next time he'll be out. It's a sign of a busy doctor in that he's going to hard mail me our one prescription. Sheese! But, it gets the job done.
So, we'll start at the top of the list. We've done a lot of work in the sewing room. Well at least it seems like it. Top of the list was that we moved in our little mini-bar AND discovered ice cubes bought in the 7 pound bags. WooHOO! Sweet! It is just now we can always have cold water. Often we open a bottle but it gets warm before we finish. We're still using bottled water, but now in a glass with cubes. We still haven't opened our wine bottles, but we're prepared … we got some stoppers so we can keep our wine fresh until we get back to finishing it all. Missy is not really approving … she's keeping her eyes open on me.
As a list the things that have gotten done is that we finished the top of Joe and Cari's quilt. We need CS to advise us on a few inner corners. I didn't like the way they turned out. I know she'll know how to fix them. We'll take it up north with us next weekend and try to sandwich and quilt it … Looking forward to having that project done before the wedding.
We were a little frustrated when CS sent through the word that one of her animals was consuming the petal project. I think it's the glue that's enticing them.
I think one of these was the culprit … and don't let their good looks hold them harmless!
I hear CS is doing her best to get things accomplished and is trying to work at least an hour a day. She hasn't mentioned how many of these blocks she's finished, but she's got 60 to do. When we left she was done with 25%.
The other project of the weekend up at CS's was the Dancer's in the Park project. We went over this with CS … she has one of the two patterns within the project done. This is the second part. I was happy how the cutting out of this project went, but then I think we overwhelmmed poor CS.
The next project was the curtains. We had gotten the fabric in and had to show a little nerves to cut into the 18 yards of fabric. I was really happy with the result though. It makes a nice soft wall. They are light enough to let light through, but they are muted. I really, really like them!
Shoot … sure hope some of these pictures made it to the sewing blog. We're still encouraging CS and Linda to write. They seem to prefer the FB notes instead of the quilting blog. I think there's a sense of the one being more private than the other. I'm also trying to encourage them to be taking more pictures. I suggested two a day, but that's proving too much. Linda's doing better than CS and is getting at least a picture in every 3-4 days. *sigh* Just when and how did we get so adept.
The next project was the table skirts. We finally decided according to the fabric we had left to do 10 - 34" panels. This gave us some really good coverage options. They are ready now to take to CS over the weekend next so that we can get them ruffled. We've got enough fabric to bring them down by 1/3 with the ruffle's … not perfect, but close enough. I'm hoping it isn't too much. We got the clips for the back, but will need CS or Rich velcro rolls to attach to the curtains.
After those were finished we went back to the fish. I was happy in getting one set of fish finished yesterday. We just need to keep working through it so we can move on to the part where we put them together. I'm thinking they are going to be way to long … so we're thinking we'll maybe make a couple wall hangings too. I don't know what we were thinking … they are only about 9 wide, but are 18 deep.
Maybe we should make 4 blankets instead of two. We'll have to see how big 9 x 9 fishes are. They are just over 6" - so that means 54" wide … hmm 4 1/2 feet. There will be a border too. Ok, just finish this part and we'll have to see. If I did split them. Then we could have a light one and a dark one. It might be better if they were going to be wall hangings. We'll have to see. We'll talk to the sewing group over the weekend about it.
The next thing about the sewing room is that although it's not finished yet last night Rich put up the two design boards and the wall hanging. I think Rich has some ghosts and goblins in his background that make handyman stuff really hard for him, but he does pretty good when he finally overpowers his negatives on doing the work. The wall hanging kinda went up upside down, but that's a pretty little thing … I'll wait until he gets back, but it seems now the magnet bars are screwed in real good so hopefully the bar holding the curtain can just be pulled off the magnets and switched up to down. It will give me a chance to repin it again too. It's sitting a little too low to the floor.
The design boards aren't perfect as to their space, but given the space we have … I'm not going to complain. Now it's up to me to make them look pretty!
Hmm, should say something here. I think you knew that the steamer was one of the items coming in under that special financial gift from sister. It's like each morning since there is a line to see who is going to use it first. Rich and us are both figuring out how to use it … and I find that both of us no matter what the condition of our clean clothes seem to prefer items steamed out. It's a really nice comfortable and relaxed look on the fabric. I do with there was an extension pole to get it higher, but for now we can let that go … just to nice to have wrinkless clothes.
AHH!!! One more thing added on the domesticity front. Rich and us both got dusters … I guess I'm going to be going for the gusto! This is proof that there was a dusting here. Rich says give it a week or two and the fun will wear off and it will sit in the closet. He has to be nicer. It might wear off for a bit, but in general we do eventually come back to things. At least we're trying.
Want even more proof … we're getting better!?? Well mostly better if I were really good … there wouldn't have been such a big piece taken out of this Blueberry Delight that w made yesterday … this involved turning on the stove and everything!
Next … we've got this perfectly willing bunch of potatoes that is volunteering to be made into potato salad! I'm pretty excited about that … maybe after a bit this afternoon we can put that together. The idea of the cooking was to take something to Rich's Mom's and Bud's and then maybe too treat out Rich's friend Bob with something special. We were supposed to go over yesterday for chicken, but Rich and us were arguing. I had told him I wasn't leaving the house until the tasks got finished. Well, needless to say he didn't like my attitude. I think we're pretty much friends again now, but the elephant is still in the room. I know he called Bob because Bob called back when I was in to see if Rich was ok. Yeeks. Feeling like a lousy friend. I keep trying to get better, but he's been leading me on in going to do these things for nearly a year. At some point patience is going to give. I'm afraid I lost mine.
I think I'm going to have to unload the dishwasher soon too. I want it done before Rich gets back. He wants to leave about 5:30 pm. He's going to take me down to Navy Pier for dinner, a movie and fireworks. We're non-committal as to the Ferris Wheel. I think of it everytime I go down there, and want another ride, but I don't want to wear out Rich's cash drawer.
There's some stuff happening with people in my life in that … on Rich's side he's going through some stuff with his kids, not between them, but with them. Chris is still having seizures and this last bit he ended up back in the hospital because his throat was closing in on him. I sure hope he didn't have whatever had gone on over here. Maury had it too. Rich didn't, but just not sure. He seems to be ok now … or at least I haven't heard anything over the last 24 hours. Jillian is going through her problems because of the breakup of her and Dawna. Rich almost went down there to help her pack-up and come up for her month break - she's a gym teacher who finished the year on yesterday. But, Jillian decided she could do all that on her own. Gotta give her credit … it can't be easy going through what she's going through.
We've been doing a lot of corresponding with CS and Linda of late. Linda had a bad turn of events in that she'd just gone back to work for her old company, and then it turned out that they were closing on Friday after two weeks of being back. Now we found that it might be a ploy on union negotiations. I think she'll find out mid-week what is happening. She's doing real well with the sewing and now her and her hubby are going out for the weekend. CS is trying to keep up with the sewing too. She's working through being out more with Mark helping with the work at their church.
There was another surprise in that I wrote to Becky my old high school friend. I don't think it is going to go very far. Basically, I asked her if she could send if she still has it … my recorders and some cards from the funerals 7 years ago. It turned out that Becky got pregnant and is now a 50 year old mom to a 5 year old. God Bless her. She said her husband left 1 1/2 years ago. I feel very bad for her in that regard. I'd hoped she'd make it. It's hard to keep marriages going through hard times. I know this for a fact. I wrote her back a little as to how I was doing, but feel real mixed feelings saying too much more. Her anger had terrified our system, and I don't want to be caught up in that kind of fear and hurt again. I think there's apart of me that will always love her, but some paths I won't cross … done too much work in becoming healthier.
We've been pretty busy at work and had some opportunities to meet some new people at a class to update my work in training the DSPs. I really liked the guy leading the group. It was a two-day affair and I sent him yesterday a copy of my notes. He was really amazed with the part of bringing in my electronics. Everyone else printed out this like 500 page book, but we just brought in the netbook with our Internet devise and went from there. And, you gotta know me enough by now to know that we take copious notes! Turned out to be about 28 pages single spaced - BUT, there was TWO days … well, just in my defense. This is Gary the teacher.
Sister has given me besides doing the accredatation work, staff training, and program a caseload of now 25 people. 3 more were added on in this last month and a half. I don't know what to do about that, or my feelings, but the gut level is that … now being 3 years away from the next CARF survey … I'm feeling pretty light and easy.
I will have a day off next week and then one day working, and then a staffing and admin meeting on Wed, a staff training meeting on Thurs, and then another staffing on Friday and then Thinking Group on Fri. Even with all this we are looking at getting back into CARF. Sister got us a 32 GB flash drive to replace the 8 GB we'd grown out of. I couldn't fit any more files on it. So now the 32 GB has all the regular stuff and we're going to reserve the 8 GB for processing CARF. I really do look forward to doing stuff with all that and I started a project of tracing the words so I really understand what they are after. I never in all these last 3 years did this and it I think didn't assist me in the holes I had of my knowledge and enthusiasm. I really do want to understand this stuff. I think it's going to be my calling card. I would like to be able to think that if something ever happened to Sister and or St. Rose I'd still be hireable to someone in the field. It means picking up some good habits now.
And, then back to our weekend now. You know about today and Navy Pier with Rich tonight and the sewing we've been working on … not sure you picked it up too, but Rich will go fishing with Bud tomorrow morning with the boat and then I will stay with his Mom, and then we'll meet for late lunch. Rich will most likely pick up BBQ and then of course the stuff we'd made, and probably his mom will throw in a few things. I don't know if Rich told her yet how much we were bringing. I'll probably get on him again for that this afternoon. It's 11 am now and he's still got 2-3 more hours being out. We're leaving at 5:30 tonight. I always worry about the weight because again we've climbed back to old weights. I'm not going far with that here. We've just started skirting that topic with Dr. M.
The two big things was to get the sewing studio complete and then CARF, and then after that we told ourselves we'd consider it again - as to diet and exercise. I know it's way past time, but we've only done so much and now handling we have to do more. We're really proud of Rich … I think he's lost about 35 pounds. He's looking very good and it's encouraging.
But, for now I think we'll stop … I had forgotten about one other project we wanted to get a handle on. We wanted to put that secondary mauve on the edges of the shelves with the craft glue. Being yet early on a Saturday morning WITH light seems to be the right time. Ok, ok … we're going to post this and then get on with it. I think you are pretty much caught up with things again. Pshwoo. That was a lot of info wasn't it.
Ok, just these last TWO more pictures. Linda is on the left and Emily is on the right they are part of our sewing sisters - Quilted Moose Sewing on Spruce - Nice, hmm? We're on a two weeks without Dr. Marvin ... Lot's happens in a couple weeks, doesn't it? Be taking care!
Rip-roaring ... and a little crying afternoon ... damn money.
V? If you’re still reading, are you also reading the sewing blog? It’s at quiltedmooses.blogspot.com
I’m feeling a need to write in my regular blog, but it seems most days that are filled with sewing to some degree or making the sewing room – we’re writing over at the other blog. My thoughts progress slightly now I hope in coming over here, but I don’t want to repeat myself. I figure that if I ever get my stuff in writing – I’ll just have to add in the sewing parts. That make sense right?
Ok, taking that all into consideration. If V is still reading this blog … he’s most likely the only one. My STAR reader! Thanks!
Hmm, I caught up sorta where we were the last time we were writing. It seems the pattern is to write over here when we’re feeling a bit overwhelmed. I’m really glad we’re having a Dr. Marvin meeting tonight. It couldn’t come soon enough. I feel a lot of built-up pressure. We’ve been floating on a manic high for a bit.
We’re needing that kind of relief.
From the time that we wrote last in the other blog about 11 days ago, we’ve been pretty much non-stop shopping obsessing about the sewing and the sewing room.
We’re going to cheat here and look up some general idea of where we’ve been by looking at the saved AOL email. That should help put perspective on things, right?
Hmm, first thing was that we got a new flash drive from Sister that is 32 GB. That was cool. We’ve switched over our 8 GB to the 32 GB. We’d reached the max of the other. There are a few more things on it that were difficult to get off, but in general we’ve freed it up mostly for when CARF comes through again … they can just look at it straight-up. It was nice of sister to get for us.
We’ve also asked for a scanner like the one we have at home. Rich seems to be using that on more and more for business. I would like to make sure I scan things in and then maybe get rid of some of the paper trail. I could do a really nice job cleaning up the office with one. I think because of the technology involved, we could scan AND do OCR, AND be able to do searches within the documents so that might replace the work of the paper tiger. We’ll have to see.
I joined the Beta for Paper Tiger and if I can get some time, I would like to test it out. They have a new On-line version which would be great!
Ok, we’re seeing if that works … it says it’s uploading, but I’m not sure, my file might be too big. We’ll find out. I was able to find the file and that was something. It says 6 mb … I didn’t see that before. I’m REALLY sure I’m over that! Waiting waiting. I sent them an email saying that I was interested in becoming an expert in their field. We’ll see how that goes. I might have to create a new file to do the Beta testing. I’m thinking that it would be an interesting way to organize some quilting stuff, but the blog really does a lot in that you can upload text and picture files. Don’t want to over think this … maybe we better go on.
Ok, then along with our purchasing power plan … it looks like a bit ago … we started the purchases with two Belkin Power strips and that we included with that order the ironing pad. It’s not expected to get here until tomorrow. Not sure why that took so long, but the strips are already in use. We created a universal wish list over at Amazon. Love that store! Then we got in sister’s money – she rewarded us with an extra $1000 for good behavior Rich got it too. They held back $200-some for taxes, but we arranged quickly to spend the rest while Rich was out of town. He got it too – with no taxes out and later he came up with the idea of purchasing a stackable washer and dryer, but because he wanted to use half of my money which was already gone – it can’t be said if we’re really going to get it or not. We’ll see. BUT, for the record SEARS is having an appliance sale … and there’s a really nice one for $1100
I just called and left a number for Mike (I think) the machine didn’t say who the phone number was for. I had to get a number from Directory Assistance. Anyway the one I’m looking at is a Frigidaire White 27 in electric front load washer and dryer. We’re still hoping at least … we threw in that it was our birthday coming up and I’d take over clothes washing. I thought I’d remembered Mike saying before that he would allow it, but I think we had to do the cost of the machine … and maybe half the installation by one of his guys. It would be worth it and worth switching around the room again. We already started figuring where we could put Grandma’s dishes!
Hmm, sister stopped by with some plastic sleeves we’d asked for … staff training in 10 minutes.
The next thing ordered was our cutting pad for the other set-up … that’s nothing too special just don’t want to drag the thing from room to room. We also ordered a couple of Ott lights. They are really special for normalizing the room light and preserving eyes from becoming strained. We got two and they were delivered yesterday. We put one over our sewing machine and the other by the cutting table.
The ironing space got the swing light and temporarily the tall desk light is over by the fridge/closet area.
Next we ordered a couple quilt hangers. We got a double curtain pole that came in last night and that will be fore the new kitchen curtains CS and I made a bit ago and the lace curtain. Then those two poles will be free for the quilt and the sewing room. The quilt hanger is a magnet that holds the rod in place. We’ve got a double set to hang a heavier quilt.
Next we ordered a steamer that came in last night. It’s really something. It’s almost industrial – if not so. AND, we got a new cordless iron so we could also leave one in the front and one in the back. We were really going for a complete clothing/cloth complex! We also got a steam liquid cleaner to care for that machine and a special hanger that came in today.
While we were over at Amazon, we ordered 16 more shelf brackets to supplement the ones we had or to add to the wall that didn’t have any. There are a few extra … so maybe we can do a little more with the wood we have, but in general were almost finished with that project.
There were a couple more ordering experiences as well. We are adding to the bar area of the room so we ordered a set of 4 hand towels to be placed on shelves and then on top of that … we should have 3 shelves of glasses of various types. We ordered a set of a dozen wine glasses, a pitcher and 6 water goblets, AND another picture with 6 Margarita glasses. Yup yup … we’re swinging that way. There were some other purchases done in cash that went with all this. We got a white and bottle of wine, 2 cartons of wine coolers, a half dozen hard lemonades, and then added to the small fridge as well … some bottles of Miller light and some general water. ONE more step well … a couple in that direction. We stopped at 7-11 and bought a really inexpensive bag of clear ice and then today we finished the shopping WE HOPE with a trip to a web shop for restaurants. Originally we got 4 dozen table skirt clips, and then we got a couple 39 cent bottle openers, then we got a half dozen wine bottle capsavers, AND then we got an oval serving tray. That for the record was on our original order. I don’t think there’s much room in the sewing room for it, but I liked the idea of using the serving tray bringing food and drinks to the living room and to the balcony. We’re moving up in class hehehe … Well, I don’t know if its moving up to be serving yourself, but it will help me feel more accomplished in putting out one of Rich’s spreads. I’d like to think I could be helpful at something. The tray has specially non-slip bottom and sides.
I’m probably not going to carry above my left shoulder. Hopefully it will be easier too cleaning the tables after eating. I didn’t know a better way to carry a Margarita pitcher and two glasses.
I’m afraid to look at my bank account, but I should probably do that, hmm? Oh man!!! I better stop. It says there is only $500 in there. But, the good part is that I already then paid the bigger school loan, my medical debt, and sprint. It’s obvious Rich hasn’t looked awhile, but the shopping is now over … I think we’re throwing in some late needed breaks. When do we see Dr. Marvin? Seems we really took advantage of having that extra money in there from Sister. We told you that part, right? After CARF we got a bonus of $1000 … yeah … said that. Well, that money is gone. How much did we spend?
Hmm…
11.78 Amazon
19.67 Amazon
51.76 Amazon
58.99 Amazon
78.00 Quilt rod
112.55 Ott light
49.99 Amazon
138.40 Amazon
170.00 Jinny Beyer
29.18 Amazon
54.87 Amazon
56.90 Techsmith
27.48 Target
76.79 Target
35.99 Hayneedle
51.58 Webstaurant
Oh man … about $1025. That’s pretty much like $225 over budget. I think the account will take, it but I’m pretty sure Rich is going to be as angry as hell.
That was like 16 separate purchases. Have we done this much bad before? Lately?
I still need to get in the ironing pad, the cutting board, the quilt hangers, the shelf brackets and the bottle of steamer cleaner, the snag-it program for CS, 3 sets of glass, hand towels, and the restaurant order of tray, clips, opener and bottle toppers
Oh Lordy … it’s about 10 more boxes. That poor lady downstairs is going to think we went crazy. I’m going a little crazy here. Is this like enough for me? Can I stop? Pretty sure we should leave Rich with some money to pay bills. I’m going to need using the card to park at Dr. Marvin’s tonight. He’s probably not complaining about that particular $7.
Wow … just got a note from V. We found ourselves back at our G-mail. We’re barely over there, but V has been writing AND publishing. I can’t say enough of my feelings of pride for you V. You just went out and done it! Congrats!
Ok, back again … we packed up but have about 15 minutes to go. I spose that’s like ten and space to enter in blog.
Oh man-o-man ... we got an official follower over at the Quilt Blog ... someone named Margaret from Australia! Wonderful!
Making tracks...
Good morning … this is me AND we’re on a day off from work. It’s about 10 am now. We just finished writing to the sewing blog and we had breakfast, slept in most the morning and didn’t do anything to taxing so far. We thought we’d write here for a few moments before going back to the studio. I’m still getting used to calling it that, but CS is pretty insistent that that’s what the room should be called. Ahh … feel like I’m in Paris and purchased a small attic off a main street.
The general part of the sewing blog was that we had a fairly lazy day, but a nice one for Mother’s Day. We spent breakfast with Joe and Cari and Rich, and then went out for a late lunch with Rich’s Mom and Bud. We also saw Mark, Rich’s brother so that was nice. The bad part was that we’ve picked up a bit of a cough and sore throat. The smoking at his Mom’s was kinda tough, but we didn’t stay there too long. We had dinner out at a country club. It was good, but as always too much food to choose from. I just had a small plate and half a piece of pie and a bloody Mary … that part – the drink made me a bit sick. I probably shouldn’t of had either the mini-snickers at Rich’s mom’s … just that 2 pm is a long time to wait for lunch. *sigh*
We’ve been doing our fair share of snoozing while at home here. I think we went to bed early last night and we slept in this morning. I’ve been on the cough medicine and we’ve been out of the medicine that helps keep us more alert. Go figure. The prescription is at work. I’ve called Rich twice and haven’t gotten a hold of him either time so I’m loosing hope on having the prescription filled today yet … It really does help my concentration. I feel bad for not having it over the last couple of days.
Missy is still meowing … I’m not sure what she’s up to. She’s coming and going from the balcony … so maybe she’s just having a hard time getting settled. I know she’s not used to me being home during the week day and that’s enough to set her off. Chief is sleeping comfortably on Rich’s chair in front of the windows. He will pick his head up and look at Missy meowing, but to tell the truth, he doesn’t want anything to do with it. Hmm, Missy is now checking out the bathroom. That’s a good sign. Sometimes before she goes she will make a lot of noise. Hopefully then she’ll settle down.
Oh oh … didn’t stay too long in there. Was it enough time to take care of some personal business? I sure hope so. She seems lost and forlorn. The birds are singing prettily outside the window – I can hear it with the window open. It seems to be a nice day and there’s a gentle breeze. That part is real nice.
There’s not too much going on you couldn’t pick up over at the other blog … just in general a nice weekend.
We’re at the point where we’ve got to resolve what to be doing next. I’d like to be back in the sewing room. Thinking though nothing much to do there unless I want to get settled into a real project. We will of course finish the last of the wrapping project. That might take about an hour. I think we should be sewing, but it’s a little intimidating. BUT, we’ve got everything in place to be doing that work. Just gotta get our nerves settled. This is the point where getting our medicine would help.
There … just refreshed our coffee and did a little picking up - not too much to be doing - just a few dishes that was throwing of the clean lines of that which is going around. I asked Rich to pick me up one of those new Swiffer dusters, because I’d like to get a better handle on the dust we’ve been discovering over the weekend with everything moving around of late. Well ok, that’s enough housework thoughts.
It’s just like the thoughts on doing work at home for St. Rose. It’s just not going to happen!
Hmm, got that done … we called my mother … we had called her yesterday too, but they must have been out … we left a message that wasn’t returned. This time we got a hold of John. He said my mother is out volunteering with the older women. She apparently does this with a friend. He said she was with the OLDER women about 80 and above, but by my calculation … she’s now about 70 and he’s older than she is.
I think they are parsing ages. But we’ll let that go … we’re 50 and that’s like not a young chick any more. But, I don’t want to get stuck here.
She may or may not call back. We’ll see. I’ve done my part though … If she wants a Mother’s Day message … she’s got to be around SINCE they don’t believe in cell phones. ARGH! That’s just the dumbest thing … ok, girls we’re getting riled.
Better let it go.
I did get a message from CS on AOL saying that she was up doing something so had to go back for a nap. I just don’t get all that napping. BUT, then I napped this morning today too – well at least wasn’t really up until about 9 am. Just that she’s set her pace so low. I’m not sure how to deal with that – at least I don’t know why it frustrates me so much. Just better let that go too.
I figured I should say something about CARF before I go find some actual work to be doing. I felt pretty good about it since the first time the woman showed her face around the door.
Whoops that was CS. She called back which was nice. She’s up from her nap. I don’t know if she understands, but when people nap several times a day and then complain about not sleeping through the night there’s probably a little depression happening. CS did a lot of talking as if she wasn’t doing something because she was waiting for something or another to happen. She also mentioned again how she’d picked up in the kitchen and started laundry. It’s just that these aren’t the kinds of things that take a whole lot of time especially if you are doing them every day. She made sure to point out that when she works she gets tired, but then if you’re not pushing your body or mind – you are bound to get tired or feel hurt because your body isn’t used to making those demands on you. Believe me I know all about this.
Mentally we’re a lot busier than CS, but I don’t think either of us move too much physically. I’m like in a glass house here … it’s just that if you are below “BY A LOT” under MY effort levels pshwoo … there’s some serious problems. AND, there is a lot of things that happen on my level to get the sense of appreciation for being a bit obsessive-compulsive. I just don’t understand so many pauses that nothing gets done unless someone is there prodding you on. I can hear CS making excuses, but there has to be just a bit of laziness too. I know that’s our case as well.
Just we’re actually WORKING on it~!
So with all that said … it’s about 11:11 am now. I think it’s about time we go give the rest of the day to the sewing studio. Let’s see if we can’t get to a place where there is actual sewing happening? Wouldn’t that make Rich proud? And how about yourself AND being a good example to someone's little sister, hMM??
Happy Mother's DAY!
Good morning. This is me, and it’s HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!! So have a happy one out there all you who have deserved this special day! Believe me if you’re a Mom you are on auto-deserve!
I’ve been up for a while and caught myself napping while typing so we went and took our shower. Hmm, that reminds me … we’ve got to take our medicine. I know Chief is right here as happy as a clam, but priorities are priorities. Ahh there we go!
I haven’t done anything with the sewing studio this morning, but we’ve fixed the Facebook and typed our Moose blog. That’s a start right?
I think we last left off here that we were still in our CARF 3 day survey. The bottom line for that if you haven’t heard on any of our other mediums is that WE’VE PASSED!!! This is a really big deal. I don’t know what to do with all that happiness. We’re not real ready to talk about it, but we should say a few things.
First off is that we had a really nice surveyor. Her name was Mary Zubek. I might have told you this much already. I guess going to church was a real good experience for her on Friday morning, because she came out glowing. That was really a feather in sister’s cap. After she asked how often we did that and we told her it happens every Friday. She was amazed with what we thought of as quite common – at least for St. Rose. It makes me feel proud that the center touched her so much especially after all the centers she’s visited over the last 15 years.
Ahh it’s a bit after. It’s 7:45 am. Rich is now up and looking for some time to wake up … we tried talking to him and all we get is the aches and complaints part.
He’s pretty stiff when he wakes up and has to do quite a bit of stretching to get comfortable with his body. But, then of course, we’ve been up for about 3 hours and we’re all happy with the day so it’s a real slow down to hear the complaints.
But, that be the deal of being a girl friend.
Like stated above … he’s got the next half hour to himself … he’s going to watch a fishing show and tape our morning show. I haven’t been watching it, but think he’ll see it later.
I’ve got a pretty bad cough and have been considering whether I should go to his mother’s with them, because older people are that much more vulnerable. But, I think we really should go. Rich likes the company and I think he likes that I am getting along with his Mom so well. After we see Joe, I think we’ll head out in that direction. We’re going out to eat – I think we’re doing lunch. Rich is also looking forward to meeting up with his brother Mark. I’m glad he shows that kind of enthusiasm.
Rich has had a pretty hard week in that Chris his son had a few seizures this week and went to the hospital each time. Things have progressed as they might, but it doesn’t take away the worry a father has over his son. I won’t go into details here, but we wanted to say at least that I hope Chris gets better and that they figure out what’s causing them. He hasn’t had any for years.
I haven’t heard too much from the other kids. I think Jon is going to be up for the weekend, but I haven’t heard much more than that. Maybe someone else is seeing to transportation if he is up. Jillian too has been keeping a low profile. I think she’s looking for her own place, but I think she’s planning on staying in New Mexico because she’s had job offers. We’ll see how that turns out Maybe she’ll be coming home for a bit during the summer when school’s off. Rich made mention of her or Jon maybe staying over, I think though it had more to do with not getting rid of the bed. I think though if they are coming … or my kids or anyone … they can have the couch. Our apologies for not being a better hostess, but then again – I GET TO USE MY ROOM TOO!
Hmm, looking at my shelves from this perspective. I think I’m going to bring back the couple of small stacks of fabrics … I’d like to see CS keeping those kind of stashes and then we’ll bring her back the sewing videos for the EQ6 program and the Voyager – her long arm. It’s a lot better to organize seeing everything displayed in front of you.
CS mentioned in a note on FB that she might like getting rid of some more stuff so that she might better organize. I feel a little guilty, because we get all this cool stuff around us and she doesn’t then get to keep it around her. I think I see her point though too. She’s been collecting these kits for years without doing anything with them. She might be getting tired of looking at them clutter up her space.
I think she has a certain amount of guilt for not getting them processed further.
I would hate to see that if she sent them in our direction she just might collect more to fill the new void. Yeeks! That would be terrible! I wouldn’t have helped her at all. Too I have to be thoughtful in that I could run into the same problem as she has concerning looking at them without doing anything. Just gotta be careful.
I just been talking to Rich for a bit. I got dressed to make sure I was out of the bathroom before he needed it. It’s already quarter after 8 am and he hasn’t taken his shower yet. You gotta know we’re encouraging that! I’m not usually late when it comes to our kids. I like to be on time and accordingly they are the same.
I’m going to have a hard time leaving the room. I sure do like to be here.
There’s a nice morning sun too! I will bring my electronics with me, but usually we don’t use them. Boy that kitty is sure curled up and sleeping comfortably!
Maybe I better get this all posted, so we can be ready to leave – if you’re a mother HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
CARF IS PASSED?!!!
Good morning this is me. Rich has just checked in … he was checking on Mary’s coffee order. It’s funny because I was just thinking that I should give him a call. Great minds!
Mary’s the surveyor isn’t in this morning yet, but we told Sister a few moments ago that she’s going to try being at Chapel in 20 minutes. I hope she follows through. Sister looked happy to here she might be there. It would be a good chance for Mary to experience our clients. One of the lower functioning will be receiving communion this morning so it should be a specially nice service.
We’re up to day 3 of our survey and it seems to be going really well. Mary is a very, very nice person AND a good surveyor. It’s been really enjoyable talking to her. She’s been in the space right next to or in-between Rich and us. The Leadership group has been in the last few days though so Rich has been camping out in the staff dining room. It’s been so pleasant and comfortable having her here.
Besides the part of understanding CARF SOOO well and having someone to talk to about it, she’s been just like a friend in that we’ve talked about things more personal. I really have fallen for her big time. I hadn’t remembered her from before, but as soon as I saw her warm face, I knew everything was going to be ok.
I brought in with me today one of the quilts from the stash CS sent home. I checked with her and she said of course – please do, but in general I’m bringing it to give to Mary … I’m hoping she can take it – kind of under the table, because I know they aren’t supposed to receive gifts. It’s just that I think she might be lonely or in need of the same kind of things we were in being able to create enthusiastically. I found she used to sew everything like the kids clothes. Well, you can imagine where I might go with that. I hope this gives her a good start and maybe she can share the quilting world with us. It wouldn’t take too much in materials so that she’d be ready. I’d like it if we could become friends after this is all after it be so cool if for example she wanted to be a Moose sister.
I’d have so much fun with that. We’ll also tell her about the quilting bloggers.
It be nice if she knew there was a much bigger sisterhood to be a part of. She reads a lot, but I’m thinking MAYBE there’s a small squeaker of a space she could do this other too. It’s made US so happy! Plus, she’s a kitty person … that’s like a cool part enough to think she’d be a natural as to the group. She’s higher intellectually and probably in lifestyle, but that could be something that we could all live with. We’ll see too early to tell now, but it be very nice
It’s about 5 minutes to now … I think Rich is going to be coming in in a few moments as well. I sure hope today goes well. It seems to be a good start … it’s rainy and wet outside and we turned on Corrine Bailey Rae. She seems to be my favorite for this type of weather. The only thing better would be to be home under a warm blanket and a book. Well, maybe a sewing book … we’d like to be in the sewing room quite naturally. Ahh that be the good stuff. We didn’t get too far last night … we watched a silly movie – Cheaper by the dozen part 2. It was just low brain thinking kind of stuff. Then we went to the computer thinking that we were going to finish our posting from the other day, but we got involved in a communication with CS and then we were like feeling tired. After a little we said night and went into the sewing room, but by then Rich was about ready to pop in the door. I think we might have fallen asleep relatively early. I’m not sure if it were with him or by ourselves, but the tucking in part led to other forms of happiness. He’s my dream cake
During CS conversation we had to go through the changing of the fabric over to the bricks rather than plastic bags. She’s worrying about natural stuff like keeping the fabric clean and animal free of whatever animals could do to fabric. I think we passed the tests of we’ll try it and see how it goes. Pswhoo. Tough audience!
We talked about another thing too – and by talking I mean I respond to her posts while she’s responding to mine … and eventually we catch up in real time. But, she says that we should call it a sewing studio rather than a sewing room. I guess we are dating ourselves. I looked up studio and I looked up room and she’s right … studio is a place for creating some measure of art. I think sewing fits into that medium when doing it artistically like for quilts. So now we gotta retrain ourselves *sigh*
Hmm, Rich is in … he showed us the Certificate he was missing saying that we were all current. Good good … it’s partially his fault for not checking on it previously, but again it’s part their fault for not sending it automatically. He was zinged with sister a bit, but she’s pretty patient now days. Just so we have the thing. It allows us to pay minimum wage to the workers or something … Just another work thing.
I have to say that I’ve been more pro-CARF than I had been lately after talking to Mary. I really do believe that it’s a good thing for the agency. She’s helping us with the books so maybe we can keep caught up a little better even with the expense. I think she talked to Sr. a little about staying with CARF. Sister is still considering, but at this point, I’d be willing to do more with it. I really have loved CARF, but worry about the time.
Mary is going to have a meeting with Sister at 9:30 am after church. I think that both should be looking forward to that. There were certain things like financial and personnel that are sister’s babies. I think she was wondering why Mary hadn’t talked to her yet. Sr. has been relieved though so that I can see her face becoming drained and then to the point of letting go. Yesterday Rich argued a point against doing strategy reports, but I knew that Mary was right and that Rich was just arguing, I ended it by saying that Mary will just talk to Sister and we’ll know from there where to go.
It turned out Sister was ok with doing it, but as we had thought she’d let it go because of no money. It will be a recommendation and I think it will be a good one. Everyone should have a strategy otherwise how would we know which direction to go. Afterward Mary let out some steam after the session with Rich, and then after that Rich let out some steam on me for not agreeing with him and arguing against his points in front of someone. Yeah but … I thought … Rich you are wrong – why aren’t you dropping it. I felt I had to represent a more flexible St. Rose.
Pswhoo. Hopefully that kind of thing won’t happen today. I think it’s good that she meets our clients at chapel and sees staff there too.
Yesterday we invited her to staff training … I don’t think she stayed very long, but she had an idea of it. I wish I could break in the exercise more smoothly, but we got into the evaluation and I thought it was a very valid conversation to have with the staff. They seemed to appreciate being able to talk of both the good things going on here and the not so good parts. I had copied three different versions of the serenity prayer in saying basically that we choose our battles.
The staff really got carried into a part of client independence and somehow they related that to client odors. I thought that was interesting. Didn’t see it coming, but we’re going to have to work a little harder with that. For some it might mean letting them do some deodorant like things here at the center and for the father who has a problem with it and his daughter … It’s just going to take more convincing. Staff really seemed to be having a hard time and was relating it to neglect, where I knew with this particular family it was more a matter of their own understanding how those kind of principles work. We’ll see … we’ve been doing this battle before … just gotta keep working it through. To some degree the problem with it falls on the girl, because if people are keeping distant from her because of her smells then something is going wrong and has to be corrected.
We’re all back. Mary and the groups are back from chapel as is Robyn who’s back to the computer work. I had gone to the washroom and ran into Rich. He said that Chris had another seizure. This was the second one this week and the second time he was taken to the emergency room. Rich is pretty uptight right now. I don’t know if he has figured out how to help. Chris called him so that was good and Rich is thinking of calling the Epilepsy Foundation … ahh there we checked out their website. It had lists of groups for people to get involved … that be good for Chris … but for now he can’t drive and has to be driven. I really feel for the family because there’s so much to worry over. I asked Rich if he was going, but he said no not at this point, but maybe soon. I think he had dinner with Chris last night … I’m pretty sure they talked about all this.
Just this seizure is new.
I would like to be working on something work oriented, but today is a bad day for concentration. By now Mary is meeting with sister, we just opened the window and feel wedged between Robyn and the surveyor in that they are on either side and I’m answering questions both might have. Not much, but the point is that I want to be available. I’d kind of like to take a look at the 2009 books that Mary got for us, but she’ll be sending out the 2010 books and I’d rather start from there. I would like to I believe go back to the outlook calendar and start keeping appointments and such. I’m not sure if the program is ok, or had crashed. I’m hoping for the better. There are a few things I’d like to clear off my desk. I have no idea what the normal schedule for me is without worrying about an immediate CARF survey.
It’s that time where you think … ok, this time I want to do everything right. She gave me a list of operational time lines so that will help. Good thing to be making deadlines.
Rich can be very business-like and he wants to contribute to the report writing. I sure hope sister gives us some room with that. I can do the gathering of data, but I want not to be the only one responsible for CARF.
Hmm, this has been kind of cool … I’ve been looking at the operational time line.
I’m going to assume the best time to start the time line is just after a CARF Interview. I really am going to need adding it to the Outlook somehow. I will look forward to getting back there. The activities are listed by the related standard, the date of the last occurrence and document source … basically after you perform the operation then it has to be recorded somewhere. Mary is saying that everything should be on a thumb drive where we can transfer electronically the data to someone coming in to do the survey. I like that idea a lot. I of course save to my thumb drive, but I haven’t been efficient enough because when Rich and I went back over documents there were things we didn’t find.
It would really be good for me if I was doing this well if another administrator was to come to St. Rose Center. I’d like to be this invested in the business.
Having Mary here is like a breath of fresh air. She wants to see all the things I would like to be a part of. It will feel soooo good not to have things on my back as to not being done or efficient. Part of it will be working with Rich. That will secure his position better as well. I’d like to have regular CARF meetings with him – of course with Sr. too if she’d like to be there. I sure hope she doesn’t give up on CARF. I’d like to have regular meetings with Sister though where we would do stuff like writing out a succession plan or review governance policies. Because these things aren’t always done equivalently it messes up having a system.
I enjoy thinking of CARF again. I’d like to be more business orientated … it would give me a more secure foundation if something were to happen as to a change with St. Rose Center. It also give Sr. something to talk about during the admin, governance and advisory board meetings. Just we’d be a little more professional.
I just gotta find out when the 2010 manual is coming out to see which related standards to plug into.
Thinking now how is it best to format these in outlook. Hmm, do I have an outlook on my little computer?
Oh man oh man … we PASSED WE PASSED!!!
It’s almost time to go so we’re on our way … just wanted to say she was soooo nice I kept waiting for something bad to happen, but it never did. She said a lot of good stuff about the work that was done and about things she really liked. I think Sr. and Rich were relieved too. There is one funny thing that happened. She finished the survey without saying we had any negatives, and then sister asked for one and then the surveyor asked sister what hers was. After that when pushed again the surveyor said she had one more bad thing … the only thing she could say? Rich was argumentative with her. YEEKS! Is he going to hear about that for three years??
