Happiness is a new Kirby!

 When my mother passed in 2003, she left me her Kirby 2000. Ever since, I have been a cheerleader for the company. Kirbys are like tanks. They can be a little cumbersome if you have to grace any steps, but otherwise, they now come with a "Drive" and "Neutral" feature. Most come with a ton of attachments, videos, instruction manuals and the like.  And they come with a mighty pricetag as well: upwards of $1500!
The Legal Adult has become very domestic of late. Apparently, it's not cool to have a dirty apartment anymore. And there are his allergies to consider. He bought a Bissel  from Wally World that ended up in pieces after only a few months. So, dear ole Mom has been lugging her machine over to his upstairs apartment, and up two flights of iron steps. (The things we do for our kids....sigh). Anyway, something inspired him to start looking for a used Kirby. Mom thought Craigslist, (the internet version of swapshop) might have something in his price range. And, sure enough, it did. Several, in fact. I found them and sent emails with L.A.'s  phone number. A seller called him, and he said he would think about it. In his head, it was just too good to be true. Then he left a message with her. She didn't call back, so he figured it was sold. Just as he was about to go with another seller, she called back. It turned out she lived a mile from my house! So, I picked it up and took it to him. Beautiful machine, all the attachments, manual, and even several bags and spot cleaners. He thinks he hit the lottery....but I know it was a God thing!

Things that have revolutionized my life....... lately

Now, before I even get started on this short list, please be aware that I am not receiving any compensation for telling you about it. These are only my discoveries, nothing more. Cool?

1. This is the Rubbermaid Reveal. It has a microfiber head that you can throw in your washer. No special fluid needed, just make up your own! With Snips and Fiona constantly underfoot with their muddy feet, this thing is a God send!One caveat: be sure you sweep really well BEFORE you use it. The dog hair tends to cling, making you have to change out the head.

2.  Keurig MINI Plus coffee maker. I have one credo that I live by: Life is far too short to drink old coffee. I used to have to drink my coffee in a hurry because I would make a whole pot and not want it to go bad. Now I don't have to hurry....one cup at a time! The drawback is that the cups are kind of pricey, almost $ .75 a cup. There is an attachment you can get to use your own coffee, but apparently, I haven't figured out the right amount to go in it yet.

3.  Betty Crocker Oven Liner. I recently chiseled, I mean cleaned out my oven and it took three days! My boys love a recipe of mine, Red Hot Apple Pie, which requires a 1/4 cup of red hots. You heat up candy and it bubbles to the bottom of the oven. Not anymore! I actually picked up the burned candy off the liner. It was so cool!

 

4. Redken Color Extend Shampoo. My hair is majorly coarse and hard to deal with. For years, I have been trying to use whatever I could find at the local grocery store. The results, not so good. I tried this on a whim, and my hair has never been happier! In the bottle shown, it can run as high as $15, but I get the huge bottle for $23 and it lasts me almost 3 months.

Another birthday bites the dust

Wow, I had no idea so many famous people shared my birthday.

Birthdays on June 28

Kenny Cunningham Athlete 1971 Steve Burton Actor 1970 John Cusack Actor 1966 Mary Stuart Masterson Actress 1966 Mike Fitzpatrick Politician 1963 John Elway Athlete 1960 Brian Roberts Businessman 1959 Georgi Purvanov Statesman 1957 Lalla Ward Actor 1951 Don Baylor Coach 1949 Kathy Bates Actress 1948 Mark Helprin Novelist 1947 Robert Asprin Author 1946 Howard Barker Playwright 1946 Bruce Davison Actor 1946 Gilda Radner Actress 1946 Jane Harman Politician 1945 Donald Johanson Scientist 1943 Ed Pastor Politician 1943 Jim Kolbe Politician 1942 Rupert Sheldrake Scientist 1942 Muhammad Yunus Economist 1940 Major Owens Politician 1936 Major R. Owens Politician 1936 Carl Levin Politician 1934 Pat Morita Actor 1932 Junior Johnson Celebrity 1931 John S. Bell Physicist 1928 Hans Blix Diplomat 1928 Harold Evans Journalist 1928 Mel Brooks Comedian 1926 George Morgan Musician 1924 William Whitelaw Politician 1918 George Lloyd Composer 1913 Eric Ambler Writer 1909 Ashley Montagu Scientist 1905 Ashley Montague Scientist 1905 Richard Rodgers Composer 1902 Esther Forbes Author 1891 Pierre Laval Politician 1883 Alexis Carrel Scientist 1873 Luigi Pirandello Playwright 1867 Frederick William Faber Theologian 1814 William Hooper Politician 1742 Jean Jacques Rousseau Philosopher 1712 Jean-Jacques Rousseau Philosopher 1712 Peter Paul Rubens Artist 1577

Back to the Sewing Machine, well, at least ONE of them...

Hi. Did you miss me? I've been missing myself lately. We just got back from our yearly jount to FLA. This year we opted to stay at Grandma Hunnybunny's and just go to the beach. We were going to go more than one day, but alas, the dreaded yellow flag was up on the second day. Things have changed with Grandma Hunnybunny; her cast of characters has changed from Aunt Hunnybunny (Hunnybunny's sister) to Mother Hunnybunny, (Hunnybunny's mother). Aunt Hunnybunny has a new little Hunnybunny of her own named Tyler. He is so sweet, and he snuggled me!            

We picked up Hollywood for a few weeks this summer. He made the trip to Florida without being too bored.




And he turned sweet 16! His party of sorts was a couple of friends, along with She who must be Obeyed  and Jerricho! I had fun with her as She is now almost 11! What did we do for kicks? We sorted fabric! That kid was always organizing so I gave her the opportunity to help me cut down my fabric hoard of scraps.  She thought it was great! My kind of kid! 

This week, I've been fairly selfish. While I have been working on The Legal Adult's quilt, I took out a little time to cut myself out a dress. Here's the pattern:

I don't even own a dress besides my wedding dress and if I ever had a special occasion, I'd be in trouble. My friend Robin told me long ago and far away to find a simple pattern and start with that, so that's what I did. I also got my little orphan machine fixed.

 

It was in storage as I used it to make those stitches you see, but then it didn't work at all. I took it back to the Nameless Fix-It shop here in town, and he wanted me to throw more money at it.  I took it to a place where I usually just get fabric, but they had fixed my Pfaff Hobby so wonderfully that I decided to see if they could make this little machine stitch again. It's called the Quilter's Square and they totally rock!

Look what I got in the mail!!!

Debra Spincic made this great quilt for me! ( I hope she doesn't mind that I stole her picture: see the one on the left  I tried to take and you'll see why!) It was to commemorate getting into LPN school, but wow....was I taken completely by surprise! She talked about it in this post. The funny part is that I actually read it, and never picked up on the fact that it was for ME! She is a wonderful friend, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank her from the bottom of my heart!  Debra gets me, and that is not a great feat! Thank you, Debra! I smile every time I touch this quilt or see it.....I smile because of you!

Life 101- or is there life after 18 months of back to back school?

I found this some time ago, and thought it summed up the way I feel about things. Apparently, I have a pet peeve: when someone says, "I'm just set in my ways". That seems to really get beside me.  Or when someone says, "This is just the way I am". Really?? Is it? For me, that's the coolest part of life, you don't have to be the same person you've always been. You can change, you can grow, and nobody can do anything about it.

Reinvention is a word I really like. As human beings, we can reinvent ourselves in any area of our lives. You want to learn a new hobby? The Net is full of great ideas. The libraries are teeming with books on any subject that you fancy. If you want to change your interpersonal relationships, you can read about it and change them or hang out in different social circles. Bored with your job? There are assessment test you can take at your local yokel community college or even just take a class on something that interests you. As for me, I started in radio, worked in the legal community and now I'm headed to the healthcare field. Am I scared? Oh, yeah....of course I am. But terribly excited, too.

Right now, I'm trying to get out of school mode, and get into family, quilting, and bumming around mode.  But I've been slipping. Yesterday, on my day off with Hunnybunny, I found myself at a used bookstore with ISBN numbers of books I will need for my first semester in nursing school! But I have to get back into "normal life" mode. I'm finishing up The Legal Adult's quilt, and heck, I might even do a new quilt, but don't hold me to that.

The guys bought me a bike for mother's day. I got it the day before my finals, last Sunday. It's more  "me", being a hybrid of a mountain bike and a cruiser. And truthfully, it's just purty. So, it was decided that Hunnybunny would take The Legal Adult's gift bike to ride. Hunnybunny  filled the tires with air, erring on the side of the maximum requirement. I decided to go on a spin before studying. As I came down the hill, I kept hearing a thub-dub. I braked, and then heard a gunshot sound. The tire went down, and I was in a free fall into the pavement. The handle bars went into my chest, and the whole bike landed on my left hand. It caused edema, and my hand looked like I was wearing a purple half-glove like we did in the eighties.  For my quilting friend, Kathy, Darlin' I should have listened to you and gotten a helmet! I currently lack the courage to get back on it, but my bruises are healing.

Back to the ordinary

  I've been out of sorts lately, trying to figure myself out. The whole student, mother, employee, thing has been something I've struggled with and I always forget that this is where I work most of it out.:) Aren't you so glad you can eaves drop on my brain?
Undoubtedly, the whole school thing has taken up most of my time this year, and I hate that it has. I have friends that I miss, and blogging friends across the country that have been nice enough to not drop me for my inconsistent postings. It's not that I'm trying to do too much, it's that I'm not a very good time manager. That's a terrible admission for someone who is looking to be in a health field, but true nonetheless. Lately I've looked at that quilt on the wall and wish it were done. Maybe it's not done because I don't know if or when I could possibly start the next project. I've done some pretty lame things during spring break from my school like: watch House, Horders, and pretend I'm watching Being Human with Hunnybunny. (I just don't get that show!) I've also been on Facebook more than I'd care to admit and mostly because it's quick and easy. I've never managed to do the quick and easy for very long without consequences.  And I do like Facebook, heck- if it weren't for that I may have no clue what's going on with my family. It's handy when I want to "talk" to Hollywood down in Tennessee as you know that teenagers stay on it. They'll sit for hours instant messaging you, but fall short when it comes to real conversation. I miss him very much so I'll keep on with it.
The Legal Adult has had his share of growing pains this year, and between work, school, and my crew at home, I've been carving out more time to see him. In fact, he and Sweet Thing took me out for a nice dinner last week. Miracles never cease.

And then there's the Dyl Pickle, who's growing faster and faster, and with all that I'm doing, I don't want to miss it. His birthday falls just as school starts, so we bought him an early birthday present..a new bike! He is riding now without training wheels and it's so cute to see. I think I've mentioned before that The Legal Adult doesn't drive? He actually owns 5 bikes and was generous enough to give me one last week so I could "ride with Pickle".

I wonder what I was thinking when I accepted it...sigh. I haven't been on a REAl bike in 25 years! So, it's kind of like we're both learning how to ride.   

I'm having trouble figuring out the gears. And I don't have a helmet. Do you HAVE to wear a helmet these days?

t

Life Compartmentalization at its Best

This year I didn't make resolutions. I knew I couldn't live up to them. But I did look at how I was spending my time,
First and foremost, as a student. In fact, I have so compartmentalized this aspect of my life that I'm boring everyone with it. To remedy this, and to perhaps connect with other older nursing students, I created a new blog, Midlife Nursing Crisis. Yeah, I can guess what you are thinking: "She hasn't made time for this blog, why create another?" Mostly, I wanted to get back to the "normal person" aspect of this blog. I started this to get some stuff out, and keep a record of what's been going on. I have not made time for it, and many things which could have been addressed in this forum went to the attic of my mind. And there's enough stuff there already. To be honest, I've been compartmentalizing my life a lot lately. It's almost as if I can hear the gears switch in my head when I'm doing it. For example, when in "Wife 101" mode, I try to stick with those things that most wives deal with; bills, husband, kids, laundry, dogs,financial stability, "what's- for-supper-honey?, etc.  As a student, it's all about what is on the next test, did I get those transcripts? Am I going to have a GPA that's competitive enough against all these younger students? Labs, reading, red tape....you get the picture.
Basically, I am going to another blog to grouse about school. Don't wonder if I've quit school if you don't read anything about it here. If you're curious, head to Midlife Nursing Crisis. You'll find all the sorted details of that part of my life.
The Jury is Still Out is still my playground for quilting, life experiences, and general catching up, so I'm endeavoring to make this split to retrieve some of that fun while I jump through the nursing school admission hoops. Thanks for listening. Y'all are the absolute best!