A Passport!

Will that be a Passport to adventure?  Will it just be another form of ID or will I use it to go someplace?  I don't know the answer to that myself.  I would hazard that it will be just another form of ID but in today's society when we have to have passports to go to neighboring countries like Canada, at least I will have it if my friends say, "Let's go to Canada for the weekend."  I've been to Canada before  and it would be nice to go back.  I'll just have to wait to convince a friend to drive me.  :)  But why am I talking about a passport today?  It's because in roughly a half an hour, I will be going to the post office to file for a passport.  I've always wanted one.  Not sure why but it has taken me this long to get the money for it and actually doing it.  It will be another thing I can mark off my bucket list.

It has taken me a bit to gather up all the information.  I'm the last of my family so I can't ask others the questions but, luckily, I have been able to gather information through some ancestry sites.  But shouldn't I know the answers already?  Yes, I should.  Did I know?  Not all.  For instance, My father died when I was in 5th grade.  I remember his birthday was in September but the year?  No way.  Where was he born?  Ummm in Illinois but didn't know where.  Who to ask?  Mother?  Brothers? Sister?  Grand mothers?  Grand fathers?  All dead.  It proved to be a little challenge but finally I found out the information.  Now I have certified copies of  death certificate, birth certificate, marriage certificates, etc.  I knew that Dad was born in the US but I think he might have been one of the first of his side of the family to have been born here.  Grandpa and Grandma Bromeland (my maiden name) came over from Norway.  The whole family donated money and food so that one family could come over and make a living in the United States.  Then when they could, they would send money back to Norway to help finance another family  to come over.

My point in writing this is...don't assume everybody will know or have access to papers that you might need later.  Don't wait til the last moment in order to gather this vital information.  Even if you don't keep track and do the Ancestry thing, some day you might need to know this information.  Also keep in mind that you have to contact the Vital Records offices in the county where the event happened.  For me this meant to get a copy of my marriage certificate, I had to get it online from Wisconsin, my divorce papers, however I dealt with Illinois records.  One county records showed that my father was born in a different town than what it was listed on my birth certificate.  Isn't it fun to try to put together these pieces?

While waiting for time to pass I remembered that I hadn't had breakfast yet.  I wanted something to eat but didn't want to upset my stomach which suddenly had a case of nerves.  So I had a small sweet potato that I had baked the night before.  This is what I like about being single.  If I want a non-traditional breakfast I can have one.  Some days it might be leftover pizza or pasta, some days eggs, some days potatoes.  I never know what I will eat ahead of time.  Since I've lost 90 pounds this year (another check mark on my bucket list) I guess I'll stick to it.

Oh..time to get going or I'll be late.

Later everybody!

A Gift for me and a video of another Bonnie's story

That's right.  I was gift a wall hanging.  It's approximately 4' x 3' 3/4".  This isn't JUST a gift for me.  It is made out of blocks that the yahoo group called OurTimeToQuilt did.  I'm part of that group and between that group and my New CyberQuilters group, I feel the love of quilting and quilters!    Our Time To Quilt decided, if anybody wanted to, to gather up house blocks.  However we wanted to do them.  One of the talented ladies, Diana Wright (known to some as the copacetic quilter), would put together out blocks and do the quilting on them.  I sent in my block (the large white one) as did some other ladies.  Then it was decided who would be the recipient.  It came to me!!!!!!  I almost started to cry during our Sunday afternoon live YouTube stream because they said so many nice things to me.  I, however, only believe 3/4 of what they said but I'm not giving back the quilt.  They will have to come and get it and if they get to my place, I "know" that I can distract them with fabric and they'll find the house quilt.  Each block is different and fun.

Gah!  I look terrible.  I hate pictures of myself.  Anyway, I hope the ladies know how much I love them because I honored their request to see a picture of me standing next to the quilt.

This was laid out in my sewing area at home.  Thing are a little crowded but at least I could lay it out.  Did you see my half way organized stash there?  There is more on the other side but had to stop organizing it because the house is up for sale and people wanted to come into my place to walk through it.

A much better picture since I am not in it.

A close up of Deb's thread painting in her block

So I would like to thank:  Deb, Diana Wright (both for putting in a block AND for quilting it, Susan Smith, Nadine, Patricia Frye, Cheryl, and Sonya (who did two blocks).  Thank you one and all.  It's up in my office right now so I can see it each day and have you with me.

The second thing I wanted to say was thank you to another Bonnie for saying yes I could share her video.  Bonnie is in a couple of other Facebook groups with me.  This is her story about traveling the path from discovery of MS to where she is at today including her experience with her caretakers at her current home.  It is uplifting and she is a VERY talented person who does multiple crafts.  Please watch it.

That's all I wanted to say today.  I can't share what I am working on since it is for a test pattern.  It should be cute when finished.  

Everybody have a wonderful day and an even greater weekend.

Hugs to all.

Where does the time go?

I swear that I went to be after my last post and then woke up today and my weekend is almost over with.  What's up with that?  It turns out lots of things.

Some of you might know that I was starting to reorganize my apartment (upstairs large efficiency in an old house) .  That is always a very messy thing to do.  In the middle of that, with the apartment a mess, I found out that I am the only tenant now AND that the landlords are planning on selling the house.  They have owned it for only a year.  Actually less because I think one of the realtors said August 10 or so would have been one year. 

So now I have to clean up the place, in my mind,  even though my landlord said it wasn't necessary.  Ummm.  Yes it is.  One of these people who are walking through this place might be my new landlord.  One of these people might decide that they don't want renters and I will have to move out.  I want it to look lived in but manageable.  So I took a couple of days off and cleaned up.  My body hasn't been that sore in ages.  It was a good thing that I had a massage scheduled in that time.  My person, Lane, said it looked almost like I was in worse shape than the three before.  I then told her what I had been doing.  The good news is that I got the apartment where *I* thought it could be shown.  The bad part is that my body and crafting paid for it.

I am NOT a neat crafter.  The only way I seem to be able to craft is by laying everything out on the floor and tables and THEN make progress.  That is NOT good when you have to show the apartment at last minute times.  I don't technically have to be there but I do NOT like people seeing my house when I'm not in it.  It's not too bad.  They usually only take about 5 - 10 minutes but it's the waiting for them to show up, look at the other two apartments first, and then come up to see me.  I also get dirty looks from the realtors when they see I'm home.  (grins).

This week I will be taking off work Monday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon.  Hopefully I can do some little pick me ups before people come in and then perhaps get some stitching done or get back on my cooking on Sunday for the whole week.

Now that I've complained, my next post will have pictures of what the room looks like when I'm "trying" to be good and keep it cleaner.  I just don't have the room to put everything away.  I still go and buy stuff when it is on sale to have on hand for when I do retire and on a more limited budget.  THEN, later in the week I will post a picture of quilt/wall hanging that I helped make a block for.  Remember me talking about my house block that I did for an exchange?  Little did I know that I was doing it FOR ME!  Yes, that is right.  They told me, in our weekly Live Chat on YouTube!  I was floored.  Of course I will take pictures and tell you all about it in more detail when I get it.  I might get it by Wednesday.

So now let me sign off with that teaser and try to get something stitched.

Updates in the week.  Have a great night.