So far, our rain gauge shows 1.99 inches of rain from this storm.  The high wind gusts are around 35 m.p.h. so it is a nice little storm.  I don't know that it is the freaky storm everyone was talking about.  At one point, I heard a forecast of 13 inches in the series of storms. so....we'll see.  So far, its just a storm!

One more 'new to me' activity done!  I spent over an hour talking to a high school ROP class about Lending.  I go back Friday for an hour and half.  (The teacher asked if I had any videos or anything - I must need a little spice in my presentation!)  The bank is sending staff in to the classroom on a regular basis, with different people from different departments talking about their 'specialties'.  A couple of weeks ago (right before I went to Tulsa) an e-mail came out that they still needed 'some help' with the Lending area.  I volunteered to help - thinking I was 'helping' another Lender.  I found out last week that I was it.  Poor kids!  I read the book (very dry, and over emphasized areas that aren't that big a thing unless you actually go into banking, and glossed over things that people need to know just to be a good consumer.  Go figure!)  I was quite proud of myself - I worked up a lesson plan, including assigned homework and everything!  It went pretty well - there are only 5 kids in the class, so it was very much one-on-one, and they were good kids with some good questions.  (some questions not so much, but....they are kids.)

Once again, we had a full house for Thanksgiving.  I think the only one missing was Sarah, and she is now in Las Vegas.  In her place, we invited Lisa, Dave's girlfriend and Margene, Dallas's mom down to join us.  She is seriously missing the kids!  Dallas will be home from Pennsylvania for Christmas, and Allan will be home in February - with his new wife.  He's getting married next weekend.  Talk about a year of change for Margene!  It was a nice visit with all.  I don't get to see everyone that much anymore.  Jeff's boys are getting big - even Jake - he is finally getting a growth spurt.

Sometimes, you just want to try something different.  Even though you have 6 projects already started, there is one just calling to you.  And of course, you MUST go get new yarn/thread for it, right?  I got the new Crochet Today magazine this week, and there was a really cute hat pattern in it.  I don't wear hats, but....a co-worker's daughter lives in Germany, and she does, and, she is coming to visit in a couple of weeks.  I picked up three different yarns on Tuesday at lunch (two different colors of the type suggested for the pattern, and the other just because it is gorgeous!!), and then whipped this out Tuesday night.  It went together really fast!  Here's the top of it....

Here is the side of it....

And here it is on - don't judge - I hadn't even dried my hair yet.  I was in a hurry to get photos because I had a ton of things to get done Wednesday morning.

The yarn is much prettier in person - the photos at 5:30 a.m. don't do it justice.  (Neither does the model :))

Getting ready for the week ahead.  Turkeys thawing? Check.  Meal planned out?  Check.  RSVP's received?  Mostly - still room for a few more, so feel free to stop by.  I think I have the big things done.  It's always the little things that trip me up.  Napkins, plates, utensils, serving spoons, etc.  By now, you would think I would have it down, but....not so much.  Good thing it's family coming.  They are at least used to it by now.

Fast forward through THAT week - talk about flying by.  Here it is, Sunday afternoon, and I' still doing laundry, and trying to catch up with myself.  The work part of the week was good, but I flew to Tulsa on Thursday with three other people for work.  It was a fun trip - there are always adventures in travel, and we had a few.  At one point, I didn't know if two of us were going to make it out of the DFW airport - we were the last ones to board the plane (we were there in plenty of time, the airline just didn't know if they had seats for us.)    And this was after the first plane we were scheduled to fly on was deemed 'unairworthy' and they had to send for a new one from the hanger.  It's always an adventure!  Even the stewardesses were on before us.

We did take a break after our meeting and go for a walk along the Arkansas River in Tulsa - a very pretty town.  One of the gentlemen traveling with me went to high school in Tulsa (many years ago!) and he drove us around, showing us some of the sites.  At times it was hard to see them, since we had our eyes closed from his driving!

This photo was taken from the hotel:

The rest are taken from the walking trail.

It has been a "marathon of movies" weekend.  Since I really don't want to do most of my chores, I've been holed up on the couch (or kitchen table if Alli won't share the couch) working on craft projects, watching movies.  Saturday I re-watched Mirror Mirror among others (I love that movie!) and yesterday was a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon.  I missed the end of the third movie - I fell asleep on the couch.  I gave up around 11:00 and went to bed.  I did finish up a little project (blue snowflakes for Meredith) and started a new one (a scarf).  

I hoped to finish my fox stole that I started in 2006, but.....I can't find the yarn for the tip of the tail!  I thought I separated what I needed for the project and put it all away together, but, low and behold, I didn't.  Of course, the yarn isn't carried anymore locally, and I had to order it on-line.  Joanns.com has it - $5.99 a skein, and only $5.95 for shipping.  Oh boy!  Lucky for me, they had a shipping special for Veteran's Day - $0.11 flat shipping.  So, of course, I had to order a couple of balls of thread in colors I can't get here too, right?  Now, to get everything else done on the stole so all I have to finish is the tip of tail when that yarn cones in!

Allison's room catches the afternoon sun in the winter.  I went to put clothes away yesterday - all three cats were sleeping in there.  In seniority order - Rufus on the bookcase, Picot on the bed and Indy on the dresser.  They were so cute!

I found the perfect spot for my new quilted table runner.  It's it great!!!

Last night was also a marathon cooking night.  AJ had three friends over, and I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits.  (I made roasted Brussels sprouts for the adults too - the kids didn't touch them!)  I fried up about 20 pieces of chicken, and about 12 potatoes, and I think there were 6 pieces, one serving of potatoes, and one serving of sprouts left over.  After I went to bed, they polished off the homemade ice cream, too.  It took me as long to clean up the kitchen as it did to cook, I think!  I can hardly wait until they want breakfast (yes, they spent the night).

Someone was tired of waiting for dinner.  She waited and waited and dinner wasn't ready yet.

S

As I was pressing my last seam in my Christmas quilt top, I noticed a big problem.  Can you spot it????

For some reason, I sewed the last strip on upside down - the bear paws are pointing the same direction!!  Luckily, I noticed as I was pressing it, and made a quick correction.  Here is the finished project (finished so far as I have material.  I get more today!)

I also worked on the Fall table runner, As usual, I had help.

Not quite so usual, I had lots of help.  Good thing they are cute!

I finally got the off the material long enough to get it pinned out.  I had Koori (up on the couch pretending to be sleeping) Tank and Picot 'helping'.

With all the excellent help I had, I finished it last night!  I've very proud of this one - It looks so pretty!!  "Most" of the points match up and everything!

We had Margene, Dallas's mom, over for dinner last night.  She had been visiting in Minnesota for a week, but got sick enough that she had to change her travel plans at the last minute staying extra long in Minnesota.  I thought she might not have edible food at her house when she did get back, and I was right.  She said she opened the frig, and all the things that 'should have' been okay for the shorter visit, were not okay after the longer, unplanned, visit.  No one wants to go shopping after a full day of traveling!!! It was nice to have a chance to catch up with her over broccoli beef stir fry.  We both miss having Dallas around, but he will be home for a week at Christmas, and her other son Allan is getting married in about a month - we need to catch up more often!

I don't know which looked funnier - my poor little finch with no tail feather hopping around the cage like a chicken, or my poor little finch with just ONE tail feather.  Poor baby!  Hopefully the others will grow back soon - molting is not a pretty season.  At least he is getting feathers back.  I was wondering there for a while.

Today is a day off - just for me!  No kids (until I pick up Alli after school) and AJ has classes today as well, so I have the day to myself.  I'm going to go shower, get dressed and pull out the sewing machine and see how far I can get on my quilt(s).  I have the stove turned up just a bit - it is 35 degrees outside - Brr!  A far cry from our 85 earlier this week!

We had out book club meeting last night.  Our book was "Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet".  A great book, and we had some good conversations about it.  It was based on WWII, the Chinese and Japanese immigrants (first generation vs. second), Japanese interment camps, and the relationships of children of both cultures, discrimination, and belief in dreams.  The opening chapter started up with the discovery of items that had been put into storage by the Japanese being moved to interment camps, and the first box opened contained a parasol.  That became the theme of my bookmark this time.  They didn't turn out to be exactly Japanese parasols, but....they at least look like umbrellas!!

I get a 4-day weekend this weekend!  I'm taking tomorrow off, and Monday is a holiday.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Since I have to get up early to get Allison off to school, and Randa was here yesterday to clean the house, I will be free in the morning to craft or take the dogs for a walk (if it isn't raining - which is the forecast right now, but....it may change, it usually does...) or anything else I want to do.  I really want to play with my quilts - I get new fabric on Saturday  and it would be nice to be caught up on the new quilt before I get it, and....I want to use the table runner at Thanksgiving - I'm running out of time to get that done!  I'm off to Tulsa next week for a few days for the bank, and the week after that is Thanksgiving (and right behind that is Christmas - I'm in trouble!!)

Dawn and I took the kids for a walk yesterday.  I spent most of the afternoon sewing and needed to stretch my back out (I wasn't just sewing - I had to cut out more pieces, and I thought I was done!  Cutting tends to hurt my back)  The weather is beautiful right now.

Shasta is showing her last dusting of snow.

The leaves are turning.....

And the berries are turning red...

There was even water in the creek for the kids!  (Tank didn't get to play, it takes too long for him to dry!)

Here's what I got done yesterday.....

I'm pretty happy with it - it's pretty, and most of my points match up!  I love the machine - it sews over the multiple layers of material without even thinking twice about it.  My old one would stop and I would have to pull the material through - not the best way, but it worked.  Dawn said the sounds of me sewing at the kitchen table brought back childhood memories, and this machine sounds just like my Mom's - and she was always sewing at the kitchen table too!!!

I started to put the backing on my last quilt, but I don't have enough backing material here, so I need to go shopping.  Since I have to take Koori in for her shots this morning, I'm headed to Joannes after the vets.  Yippee!!

Here's my new toy!  Complete with the instruction manual, buttonholer and 11 attachments.  Pretty snazzy!

Sunrise yesterday - too pretty!

It's here! It's here!  My new (to me) sewing machine is here!  Dinner was late tonight because I was playing with it and trying to see how old it was (searching on the computer).   I couldn't figure it out, but I did (finally) find the instruction book, and the last copyright was 1954.  I sewed a little bit with it, and it seems to work fine.  Pictures tomorrow - I'm off to bed tonight

The week is almost over - November is here already.  Why is it that the weeks seem to creep by, but the months fly?  This has been a really long week at work, but I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving/Christmas.

AJ made contact with a friend of mine that manages the NPR here in Redding, and got a tour of the studio.  I think he is considering making a move into broadcasting - at least getting his toes wet.  I don't know that it is his life's ambition, but I think he is thinking it could be fun.  Another friend's fiance' works at Channel 7 with filming commercials, and she has let him know that AJ has a nice voice, if he needs a voice over for something.  Friends are awesome!!!!

I had my nails done last night, and found a really cool new polish.  This polish uses a magnet over the wet polish, and it forms wavy lines with color - too cool!  The polish is smooth - no lumps or bumps or ridges, and is very frosty and reflective.  I like it!!!

We survived Halloween again this year!  This one seemed busier than most, even though I know it wasn't.  I still made cookies for Allison's classroom, I still carved pumpkins for work, I still made bookmarks for everyone, I still made something for the pot luck at work, I still dressed up for Halloween, and I didn't have to look far for the costume, since we were 'The People of Wal-Mart" - all the normal stuff, it just felt busier.  Maybe because it was in the middle of the week - we were all wishing it was Friday yesterday!  

My department did win the competition for dressing up - and there was some tough competition!  Place Office did Caddy Shack, the Buenaventura Office did Clue (from the board game), Payroll were witches and Churn Creek Operations were 'Sports Fans'.  Too much fun was had by all!  Photos were taken at work, but I didn't get a chance to send any home.  Maybe today I'll get some sent home so you can see the rest of the competition.

We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters last night.  The rain moved in in the afternoon, and I think it slowed down everyone from going out.  There are a lot of carnivals at the schools, etc. that would be nice and dry, so why wander around in the rain?  Most of the ones that I answered the door for were the older kids.  We have a ton of candy left!!!

Here is our Wal-mart cart:

Here is one co-worker Tami:

Our Hall of Fame (or is that 'Shame'?) with the words to the chorus of "The People of Walmart" video, surrounded by photos from www.peopleofwalmart.com.

Another co-worker Berneice - complete with a 'butt bump' - not her normal shape at all!!

A combo picture of LAS and Warehouse Department:

And just LAS - I think my pink hair is shown off quite nicely here.