He's Here!

I am now officially a member of the Grandmothers' Club.  My daughter Holly delivered a healthy 7 pound 4 ounce baby boy named Denver at 10:44 AM today.  Unfortunately Denver had turned himself around yesterday and ended up being breech butt, so Holly had a C-Section.  All are doing well, except for some wicked nausea/dizziness on Holly's part.

I took a boatload of pictures on my camera phone and it is now completely out of juice, so I'll post pictures tomorrow.  I will also take my Nikon camera tomorrow so I can take some better quality photos.

I can tell you that Denver's a handsome little man and already loves his Grandma.

Almost Here!

Holly is at the hospital and will be having a C-section shortly.  Not what she expected so she is a bit very nervous!  Me too!  I'll have more details later today.  Say prayers for us all please.....

I am the Queen.....

......of fresh produce.  I have soooo much to eat -- I better double up on the fruit and vegetables!  I still have corn, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, garlic, etc. from Mike and Holly's gardens.  Now the Door to Door Organics produce arrived today:

Good thing I love my fruit and veggies!!

New Blogs

I've added a few blogs that are new to me on the left hand side.  First is Fiona Duthie's blog and a link for a plethora of tutorials on Totally Tutorials blog.  Check them both out for plenty of inspiration!

Eatin' Good in my Neighborhood

Today's weather was glorious -- sunny and not too hot.  I feel fortunate to have such a nice day when so many people on the East coast are suffering from the effects of Hurricane Irene.

I sure haven't gotten much knitting done this weekend but I did manage to wash 7 earflap hats and get them dried:

I am most definitely eating well!  I picked up a few things at the grocery store that I needed to make this stuffed pepper dinner.

I'm so loaded with fresh produce I decided I better fix the beets I got from Mike's garden yesterday.  Here are my secret weapons for preparing them without getting stained:

I boiled up the last of my potatoes from Door to Door Organics and while I hated to heat up my kitchen, the end is worth the means.

Doesn't that look delicious??!!  So healthy and fresh -- perfect dinner for a Sunday night!

Fabulous Saturday

Today I drove out to see my very pregnant daughter Holly and her husband Mike.  Originally I had intended to take my Mom out to see her but her blood pressure is out of whack again -- Friday's reading was 188 over something so her doctor had instructed her to stay home this weekend.

Instead I picked up some lunch at Chicken Shack and made the 50+ mile trek out to see the kids.  Lunch was dee-lish and afterwards Holly showed me the baby's room:

Mike did a great job painting the room and it looks ready for Denver to make his appearance.  Holly is feeling great but I swear she doesn't look 9 months pregnant:

They gave me a tour of their gardens, which are doing very well this year:

Dottie looks like she's having fun:

Recognize this???

Yep, and Mike has had a bad case of poison ivy!

Here's Dottie cooling off in the pond.  She likes to sit in it!

And here's Mike in the middle of the front garden:

 Notice all the sunflowers in the back??

We went to the Michigan Festival of Gourds in Imlay City with Mike's parents.  Who even knew there was such a festival?!

Among all the various gourd products they had this wonderful piece on display:

Isn't this 'quilt' great???

 Close up of Santa:

Amazing work in this piece.

From the festival we headed back to Holly and Mike's house, stopping at a local produce stand adjacent to a small farm.  I picked up amazing bargains.  I got a head of broccoli, 3 giant green peppers, 1 cantaloupe, and 6 red plums for $5.50!  I also bought some peaches at the gourd festival (I know!) plus Mike gave me corn, potatoes, beans, cukes, beets, banana peppers, hot peppers (for Kevin) from his gardens.  I'm all set!  I think I might make some stuffed peppers for dinner tomorrow and with all this great produce I better eat it up.  Tuesday is my Door to Door Organics delivery day!

I had a marvelous day with Holly and Mike.  That's the longest I've spent with them since......ever, I think!  I can't wait for Denver to get here -- I'm on pins and needles until he does arrive!

Thank Goodness!

Thanks to everyone for your comments to yesterday's post.  I was seriously beginning to think that Blogger was on the fritz again and my comment button was kaput.

I've experienced a serious shift at work.  My role has always been the navigator, never the driver.  Suddenly I'm finding myself in unfamiliar waters.  I hear the direction coming from my voice and I can hardly recognize myself! It's a good thing in many ways but I think the reason I've always shied away from leadership is the fear of making a visible mistake.  When you hide in the shadows it's easier to throw ideas out there and stay under the radar.

Oddly enough, I have Nicole to thank for this.  Without her aimless wandering, I would not have found my voice.  Isn't that the oddest turn of events??  Oh, yes -- she's still calling me Christine.

Bueller?

Is anyone out there reading?  Am I writing solely for myself?  No comments left for two whole weeks!  Is the comment button broken??

Sunday at Torch Lake

On Sunday we welcomed Joyce and Carol who drove up together and Jackie who drove from the west edge of Torch Lake.  We met up at the Brownwood Acres again, this time rushing to the building that offered freshly baked donuts.  HOT!  And they were so gooooood.  I'll admit I had two when I should have had one none.  Did I forget to mention that I had at least walked a mile to get there?  I know, doesn't really matter.

We went back to Diane's home and sat around knitting, hand piecing, and sewing.  Jackie was working on socks for her grandson.

Carol was knitting her 21st pair of socks this year:

And Joyce and Diane were hand piecing their 7 Sisters blocks:

Sue was busy putting her block of the month blocks together and sewing the sashing strips on:

Me?  I was busy knitting earflap hats.  Here's one I finished and washed, drying out on the deck:

A quick storm popped up but was gone as quickly as it arrived:

Once the weather had cleared we had 'cocktail hour' where we sampled several different white wines, along with some cheese, crackers, and grapes -- perfecto!!

Dinner on Sunday was at Lulu's in Bellair, very near the scene of the accident two years ago where Sue broke her leg.  An ambulance happened to be near the site:

Dinner at Lulu's was delicious.  I had a bowl of tomato bean soup and a gnocchi and shrimp dish:

When we arrived back home the sun had nearly set.  Here's a not-so-great picture:

And with that, it's time to log off -- wicked storm with lots of lightening right now!

Saturday at Torch Lake

Saturday was such a fun filled day with Diane and Sue.  Diane took us out on her pontoon boat for a leisurely ride on Torch Lake.  I even took my knitting:

When we returned to the dock we decided to go kayaking -- Sue's first time!

The winds weren't too strong and there was little traffic on the lake so we all did fine.

After some barbecued chicken sandwiches and a garbanzo bean salad, we headed to Brownwood Acres to shop at their little stores and then drove into Central Lake.  We helped the economy out in both locales.

For dinner we made reservations at The Rowe Inn.  It was very busy there and we sat outside, avoiding the congested interior according to one patron.  

Our food couldn't have been better.  I devoured the lobster corn chowder before I thought to take a photo.  Here's my pork tenderloin with orange bourbon sauce dinner plate before:

And after:

And of course we all had to partake in their fabulous desserts:

The three very full amigos:

Too Soon Over

I returned tonight from a wonderful, relaxing long weekend up at the Torch Lake cottage of my friend Diane.  It was so nice to get away and I sure do wish it could have been a longer visit.  I took a lot of pictures and will get them posted here over the next couple of days.

For now I'm off to bed early because I need to be in the office by 7:30 am from now on so that I can have a conference call with my counterpart in India while his day is still early enough.  It should be an interesting week.

I'll tease you with a quick photo from my vacation:

News You Can Use

For the past couple of months I've been getting daily emails about happenings in my community from Patch.com.  They aren't in every area of the U.S. yet but you can go to their website, click on your state if it's green and find your town or one nearby maybe.  It's a great way to keep up on what's happening around you without having to read a newspaper.

After work today I'm heading up to Torch Lake with my friend Sue.  We'll be having a mini-gathering of the Chickens.  As usual, I will be the rebel and take my knitting instead of a quilting project.  Only 5 weeks until my first show so I've got to get crankin' on products!

Have a great weekend!!!

Would You Like to Help?

Sometimes we're looking for a way to help out in our community -- a way of giving back.  I know I contribute where and when I can.  I came across this opportunity courtesy of Pat Sloan's blog today.

If you would like to help, even if you don't live in the Detroit area, this group has many ways for you to give back.  You could get friends, family, or guild members together and help make a difference in a young woman's life.

So, How am I doing?

Tomorrow I have my mid-year review with my new manager.  This will be different from past years' reviews because I think we're still trying to figure each other out.  I have a wacky sense of humor and I'll bet sometimes he doesn't know how to read me.  I'm not sure what his management style is yet so I guess we're even.  I think he's happy with my work so far but I guess I won't know for sure until we have our discussion tomorrow afternoon.  I can hardly wait.

Good Things

Today when I got home from work my Door to Door Organics box was waiting for me on my front porch.  I carried it inside and quickly opened it to see what goodies had arrived:

Doesn't that melon look like it's got a wig on?  Those carrots are soooo good.  I'm completely spoiled by the organic version.  They'll be in my lunch tomorrow.

At knit group tonight I took a boatload of yarn to disperse.  I had received large garbage bags full of yarn from a quilter friend and I needed to find a permanent home for it.  Every single skein went home with someone -- yaaaayyyy!  Afterwards I headed to the nearby Target to buy the Loreál eye makeup remover I love.  One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was on the hunt for a light bulb to go in this:

I've been searching for a floor lamp for my living room that would:

1. work in the small space next to the wing chair
2. include a glass shade -- is it me or is there just something incredibly wrong with a plastic shade?
3. have a brushed silver finish

I found all of that in this lamp but the clincher in buying this particular lamp is this:

Yes indeedy, it's a remote control.  The last lamp became expendable when the stupid plastic knob broke and I needed to use pliers to turn it on and off.  Plus I couldn't find the crazy light bulbs it used anymore.  It's so nice to turn the new lamp on and get great illumination for the room.  I'm hiding the remote from my roommate -- they seem to disappear on his watch.