Happy to be Home - Part 2

When 9 women get together there's bound to be a lot of interesting things going on.  One thing for sure is there will be plenty of great food.  We had wonderful breakfast casseroles on Saturday, prepared by Kathy.  The usual tasty Sunday waffle breakfast, prepared by Jackie, and a couple of meals where we just ate leftovers.  Don't you love those weekends where there's so much food prepared you think your refrigerator is going to burst?   I have to say, though, that I must not have paid any attention whatsoever to our planned meals, otherwise I would have known that Deb had planned Chicken Salad Sandwiches for Saturday's lunch.  Why would that matter??  Because that's what I planned for Sunday's "Linner" that we had so that Deb and Pat could be on the road by 3 PM.  Both versions were fabulous and plentiful.   Diane made a delicious and healthy soup to go with my sandwiches -- I love parsley Diane, really.  Mary made a wonderful Apple Bread Pudding for our "Linner' dessert.

No one can ever say they've gone to bed hungry during our Chicken gatherings.  We also don't run out of creativity or the 'panic' buying that comes along with this hobby.  We gathered for one last group shot on Sunday before Deb and Pat headed off ~~

Monday morning the six of us packed Mary's car, said our good-byes to Jackie and her husband Jerry (the 'Rooster' had returned to the coop) and headed back in search of the fabric that nearly got away.  We drove straight to Renee's House of Quilting, again.  This time I took pictures.

I perused the racks of wonderful Czechoslovakian glass buttons ~~

Others scoured the shelves of quilt fabric ~~

Diane found some fabric to use for curtains and such, ordering a bolt from the shop master Glen, who is also known for his fresh baked cookies ~~

Shop mistress Renee showed Kathy and me the samples she had made from an acrylic template set that I had been admiring ~~

Notice her lightning fast hands?  Maybe I could get more sewing done if my hands moved that fast!  Alas, I walked away from the templates, which I now deeply regret.  Might get them next time.  

We headed back toward Grayling for one last stop at the Icehouse Quilt Shop.  More must have fabrics were selected and we made our way to the outlet mall in West Branch were we all found some great values at the Eddie Bauer store. 

After a bite of lunch at the nearby Taco Bell/KFC and a gas fill up we were finally on our way home.  Or so we thought.  A few miles down the road the tire pressure sensor came on in Mary's van.  Uh Oh!  The last time that happened, Mary said there was a blowout!  We stopped at a gas station and all piled out of the van.  Standing around like a bunch of women, a man finally approached us, looked the tires over and told us to ignore it.  Wrong -- there was too much pressure in each of the tires -- should have been 35 PSI and there was 42 PSI.  Mary corrected the tires and again we were on our way.  Safely.

I always look forward to getting away with my friends.  We have enough in common to get along, enough differences to be interesting, and enough love for each other to make it all work.  Can't ask for more than that.