Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had planned to have our Thanksgiving celebration a couple weeks ago with lots of extra people, and Mr LJ's arrival nixed those plans. DH is working today, as he does on most holidays being an Emergency Room nurse. We ended up having a smaller version of Thanksgiving last night, with only 11 in attendance. For anyone who thinks 11 is a lot, remember, right now there are 9 people living here, so 11 is only two extras!

This has been a really hard year, but there is still so much to be thankful for! DS the Elder got married this year, and by doing so brought another grandchild and a new daughter into the family. Mr LJ was born adding yet another grandchild. DD#1's family moving to the USA really caught us by surprise, but I'm so thankful to have them closer instead of on the other side of the world. We're praying her husband will be here by Christmas! The hard parts of this year have been really hard, and they aren't over yet, but still I see blessings all around.

Today, since we didn't have anything celebratory to do, I broke out some Punch balloons for the grandkids. The weather is great!



I sewed long enough to repair a pair of pants, but that's as far as I got. 

The builder's are moving along on the addition.



This photo was taken looking in the exterior door to the master suite. Drywall is up!



Looking down the master suite hallway, you can see the door opening to the bathroom on the right, as well as the opening to the kitchen to the left of that. That area you can see tile shows how far into the house we moved the doorway. That tile is from the kitchen, we moved the doorway in towards the house almost three feet, to allow for the master bath doorway to be where we wanted it. 



The shower is installed in the master bath. It's the same style shower we had installed in the upstairs master bath, and we loved it, so we bought another one. Tile showers are pretty, but the fiberglass ones are MUCH easier to clean. I like easy. The shower is 36x60 inches, so a nice sized shower for a master suite.

I leave for Phoenix on Sunday, and I'll be gone about two weeks. I doubt I'll blog while I'm gone, I'll be too busy getting cuddles from Mr. LJ and helping DD#2 around the house. I'm anxious to see what gets done on the addition while I'm gone!

I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving, and whether life is hard or going well for you right now, may you always see blessings!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Newest Grandson

DD#2 had her baby! I am so excited to show you pics of Lincoln James! After this, he will be referred to as Mr. LJ, since I already have a grandson I refer to as Mr. L. (Why do I use terms like DD#2 or DSIL or Mr LJ when referring to my family? The first is a privacy issue, this is my blog, and not my kids' blog, so I try to give them a certain amount of anonimity. The other is much more basic. I have five kids, four of which are married, I have 8 grandchildren. If I used their names, you'd never be able to keep track who I was talking about!)


I got to hold him when he was less than a day old!


One of the few pics of him awake!


Most of the time he's a sleepy baby!

He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz, which isn't bad for being three weeks early. He is 19 inches long. Most importantly, he and Mama are both doing well!

I know I haven't been blogging much. I mostly use this as a quilting blog, and I have had no time to sew anything! We've got nine people living here, and that alone is enough to keep me busy. Add in holiday preparations, construction on the house, a new grandbaby, and everything else that's going on, and my head is spinning!


DD#3 got a new (to her) car! Her SUV was on it's last days, and this car is low mileage, so hopefully will serve her well for several years.


The addition is coming along. The stucco will be going up on the outside soon. The electrical inspection and plumbing inspection was today, and it passed with no problems, so hopefully we'll see drywall going up inside soon!

We've remodeled several rooms over the years, but this is our first experience with an addition. SOOOO many decisions to make! I'm used to choosing paint and tile, but being asked where do you want all your outlets, how many switches do you want to which lights and such are completely new questions to me. I'm pretty stressed with all the construction going on, and I'll be so happy when it's done, but I am also getting really excited about our new bedroom. It is all coming together to be much nicer than I expected at the beginning. The electrician suggested some changes would have never occurred to me. The framer and I ended up coming up with an idea to add a second closet without taking any square footage out of the main space. The bathroom is larger than I thought it would be, that storage room we're turning into a bathroom has been so full of stuff the whole time we've lived here, I never realized how large it was. The bedroom itself is also larger than I originally thought we'd be able to have. As far as decorating goes, I'm going gray on most things, which is a little odd for me, but the shades I chose just seem restful to me. 

I'll be going up to help DD#2 care for baby Lincoln when her husband has to go back to work. Since she had to have a c-section, recovery could be slow. I am frantically trying to finish my Christmas shopping and wrapping before I go up to Phoenix for a couple weeks. I'm one stocking short for Christmas, and I'm debating trying to bring the stuff up to Phoenix and use my daughter's sewing machine to make another one. I'm already bringing some sewing stuff up to Phoenix, because she needs some Pack and Play sheets and doesn't like the ones she bought. You know you have a big family when 16 stockings aren't enough, and not even everyone will be here for Christmas!