Another early morning around here.  Alli was up at 4:25,and was CRANKY....and then finally went back to bed for a short nap.  Still cranky, but not CRANKY.  A shower, some music toys, spinning in her room, and she's almost nice again.  What a way to start a day!

Yesterday, Luna started bugging Ralph to take her for a walk - which he can't do.  He had some foot surgery Thursday, and is in boot at least until Friday - his next Dr. appointment.  I don't think he'll be walking Luna soon after that, either.  I took Luna, Koori and Jasper out for a quick stroll before I went to the store, and ran into Ralph's walking buddies Nicolette and Cappy.  Cappy is an Alsatian Shepherd  - beautiful and very large!!!  The dogs had a great time playing out in the field,  Here's a photo of the sunrise (yes, that's how early I was out for a walk....)

I'm ready to ship off the baby quilt I made - Zelda Felicity was born 8/27.  I made a little something for big sister Elora, too....

I got the quilt top done yesterday - not a lot more got done than that, but....

Here's the first two blocks of the Ooh Rah! quilt that I received:

I'm really wishing it had started earlier in the year - I have an upcoming wedding for a Marine that it would have been great for, but I won't have all the material even by then, much less put together and quilted.  Maybe it will still go to them, just not at the wedding.....

We are trying something new with Alli this week.  We have been approved for Respite Services for years, but have never used them.  If I needed anything, family and friends have stepped in to help.  This week, Ralph is scheduled for surgery on his foot, so I have a respite worker (one of the aides in her classroom) coming in to get Alli off the bus and stay with her until I get home with Ralph (his surgery is Thursday at 4:00 p.m.) I'm going to have her come after school.on Friday to give him a break as well, coming in again to get her off the bus and staying until I get home from work.  Hopefully he will be able to handle her by Monday, or she will have to go back to daycare after school.

She has an appointment with a Psychologist on Monday, September 7th (yes - a doctor's appointment on Labor Day - how odd!!!) for Social Security.  We started her process in April - good thing she isn't dependent on SSI for income - it is taking forever!  Her case worker tried to avoid this appointment by getting her pediatrician to sign off that she was disabled, but never got the forms back from him.  (I don't blame him - they state that they can only be completed by a psychologist, so why should he??)  We will be one step closer anyway.  What a process!

AJ starts Chico State this week.  He and Ralph drove down yesterday in tandem to get his motorcycle down to Paradise.  His classes start on Tuesday, so he is going down on Monday.  Luckily for him, he has the same classes as Jeff, so the two of them are going to scope things out together. I'm excited for him - but am going to miss him.  He's a lot closer than South Korea though!!!

We're back into the routine of school again, I think.  Alli's bus is coming at 6:25 in the morning and dropping her off between 3:30 and 4:00. Since she is waking up sometime between 4:30 and 5:00, we have plenty of time to get ready for the bus.  Since we are up so early, I can even sometimes be ready for work by the time the bus comes.

So far, she seems to be doing well at school.  She has an aide with her that she has had before, so even though she has a new teacher and new classroom, it is at the same school, and there are familiar people with her.

AJ and I made a flying run to Mom's last weekend - we rented a storage unit and moved out extra furniture and lots of boxes of 'grandma stuff' - mainly pictures, sunflowers and owls.  We moved all that we had boxes for, so it was a busy one-day trip. Dave is collecting more boxes for me, so I'll make another trip up soon.  At least part of the painting has been done, and David (finally) found someone to do the other work around the house, but I don't know when that is supposed to happen.  He and a friend of his are supposed to be fixing the rock wall in the patio next week - he is having sand delivered on Monday for the concrete....I think things are moving - very slowly, but they are moving. Better than nothing I suppose.

I started a couple of new quilts too!  I got the first two blocks for the Ooh-Rah! block of the month quilt, and started a new baby quilt for a co-worker.  They 'think' they are having a boy in December (sonogram was not definitive) but I figured I have time.  If it turns out to be a girl on the next photo-shoot, I can just make another, and I'll have one in my stash!  This one is a pretty chevron design:

These are the blocks laid out - and I added another dark blue to it.  This is half the quilt - I'm reversing the colors for the other half, so I have one dark blue strip in the center, ending with the light blue on both ends.  I really like how it looks, and once I figured out how to pin it together so I don't get it all confused, easy to do.  It was a free on-line pattern and click here to.link to the pattern.  It should also be easy for me to quilt on my machine - straight line quilting!!!

Alli's back to school today - her first day in the adult program.  I'm going to try to pick her up today at school so I can meet up with the new teacher and check out the program.  There's been a few changes since we made the original plan.

Here's another shot of her new haircut (and mine...)

I hardly seem to have (make?) time to post, so here are a few updates:

Picot being cute:

Apron I made for Margene:

The newly re-grouted tile in the kitchen:

Old hair:

New hair:

Here are pictures from my phone - just as good as those from my camera - go figure!

Upper Lake

The fishermen

The catch of the day.....really - that's as big as she caught, and Jeff and Joe didn't catch anything.

The view from the campsite

Upper Lake as you come into the camp

Camera shy???

Not really.......

Upper Lake as we were getting ready to leave

The sunset on the way home - smoky skies

I'm not happy.  Not happy at all.  

I finished the baby quilt I was working on, and decided to make something for 'big sister' so she had a present too.  I remembered making a Topsy-turvy doll for Rachelle years ago, so I dug out the pattern.  Here's one side of the doll:

Pretty!  She still needs arms and a face, hair, etc., but the basic body is done.  Then the other side:

Not so happy now.  The dark blue yarn seems to be a different gauge than the light blue, even though they are the same brand.  Even if I add more rows to the light blue side, or take some rows off the dark blue side, the other color is going to show.  I don't remember this being so noticeable last time....

I think I'll just stop where I am, and try something else.  I think I could modify the pattern a bit so that it worked, but by the time I ripped everything out and fixed this one, it would be faster/easier to just start over.  Bummer.

Alex and I met up with Ronna, Joe, Jeff, Kody, Kolby and Jake Saturday at Plaskett Meadows.  They'd been camping since Thursday, but AJ and I just went for the day.  Maybe next year we'll get in some camping days too.  These pictures are from my 'real' camera.  I haven't loaded the ones I took on my cell phone.

Plaskett Meadows has two little lakes.  This is the upper lake.

The fam:

These are down on the lower lake.

In camp itself:

On the way back, AJ and I stopped at Stoney Ford.  There was a huge flock of egrets there - too cool!

It's been eventful around here....

Around Mom's house:

The roof is repaired;

I have a painting contractor to paint the garage, part of the house and the bathroom;

The RV has been hauled to Redding and is in the repair shop to replace the engine.

I still need someone to fix the gate, the roof on the woodshed and the green house, and the fence/rock wall.  David said that he thought he and Jeff could do that....we'll see.  Jeff is coming up to Susanville in a couple of weeks to help around there - pressure was things, etc.  I also need to go up and get a storage place and 'de-clutter' the house.  We are well on our way to get the house on the market soon!!!

My house:

A landscaper is drawing up plans to landscape my yard to reduce water and maintenance;

The tile contractor will be here is a week to clean, re-grout and seal my kitchen tile grout;

Alex is registered for Chico State.

Whew!

Added to that, Alex and I went on a moonlight kayak tour on Whiskeytown Lake Thursday night (not quite a full moon - but close enough!  The full moon was Friday,)  I didn't take any pictures (water and cell phone/camera - not a good mix) but AJ had his Go-Pro and has promised me some pictures from it.  I'll load those when I get them. It was well worth the sleep-deprived day at work the next day - we got home around 11:00 p.m., and Alli was up at 4:45 a.m.  I was yawning at my desk all day!

Alli's daycare sent me this picture of her - they were playing with bubbles and she was laughing and giggling.