Cora Comes to Visit

Cora came to visit on Friday.

Angie is so cute I can’t even describe it. You know how some new mothers just drive you insane with their worrying and constant baby this and baby that crap?

Well, Angie brought in Cora because she was worried about Cora not gaining enough weight-Ok, look at this kid

Seriously, I think she is getting enough food. But Angie was so cute about being worried about her we could not even start to be annoyed.

So we rushed her off to the scale after a scary brush with this-

Here is Patrick, who is never allowed to ride in my car again after an unfortunate incident involving backseat driving and horn honking. Doesn’t he look cute with the baby.

She weighs just enough-phew! That was close.

Here is that cute Angie, relieved mother and just so sweet-I can’t say it enough.

 

Not so good of Cora, I can either get a good shot of Angie or of Cora but not both together it seems.

Cora is getting to be a regular little kid now, and what is with that hair? It is about 3 shades lighter. She is quite the baby around our office.

And, of course, what the heck. Would it really be a visit without this-

I know-don’t even say it. Laura is back again. You might get the idea that all she does is wait around for a baby to nab, but really, Laura does actually work in between grabbing babies.

And that’s what happened Friday.

Wanda Retires

It has come to my attention I am a bit behind on the blog. It has also come to my attention that the last blog post had HUGE font. Is it my eyesight or what? OK, I am on the font size now.

Wanda, our supervisor, retired June 4th. This is how it went down.

We decorated the room in a quilting picnic theme and brought in the food-including 3 cakes. My kind of party

           

See Laura waving Hi? She is at loose ends because, as you can see, no babies.

 

Here are the interpreters. Well, Hannah and Yasmine. Part of the interpreter crew. Aren’t they cute? I take pictures of them at every party. Yasmine is having a baby in September. Laura is eagerly awaiting. And so am I.

Dan, the head of our dept, Wanda, and Nancy Hicks. Nancy wrote a hilarious poem for the show. Very impressive.

Wanda is going on an Alaskan cruise so they had a PowerPoint show taken from Ali’s pictures with Wanda’s head stuck in each picture. That also was very good.

 

Corrine, Charity, and Jennifer from SS put on a little skit.

All in all, a pretty good party. If you need a party, please call Preventative Health, as we are getting pretty darn good at it.

The race is on

I raced a few weeks ago. Well, I raced before that but I refuse to blog a bad race. Since it is my blog I feel I am entitled to edit out my poor performances.

Well, OK. Since I just found the pictures I guess I will blog the Spring Classic, which was not so classic. This was a 9 mile race in which I got tired, had to walk, and generally felt crappy. I finished with a poor time which would put me well over 2 hours in a half marathon.

Bad hair, but otherwise not feeling too bad at the start.

Here we are, all lined up. I am right in the middle looking pretty stupid. Please tell me my posture is not always that bad.

Crossing the finish line in 1:27 or some such awful time. I run the TC10 faster than this 9 miler. And that is about enough of that.

This is the good one. I ran the Med City Marathon in 2 hours and 9 seconds. If I hadn’t stopped to adjust my music I would have broken 2 hours. (Like I used to…back in the day)

See our shadows? Feeling good at the start

Nice crowd and we can wear our music-big plus. Weather perfect, cool, sunny, low wind.

Here is the starting lane in Byron. Run down, circle around, run back and start towards Rochester.

Finish up by the YMCA-

Kenny was directing traffic. Unbeknownst to him he is our hero.

He really can be hilarious at times.

 

                        

Very happy at the finish. I didn’t have a watch so I really didn’t know the outcome. Just feeling good and having fun. The 600 mg of ibuprofen before the race didn’t hurt either.

And the finish

Official time was 2:00:09. WooHoo. Shook off the spring classic blues.

Next up is today in Winona-BK5K. 5K. Ouch. That means running fast for 25 minutes. Ugly. But a yearly tradition. The race is on.

Keeping up with the Joneses

I am blogging like a mad woman trying to catch up because the Maine trip and everything surrounding it took up so much time.

So, lest my Racine peeps feel left out I still love them.

I was there last month for a little embroidery soiree.

Look at what the girls are up to.

         

Aren’t they talented? This is what I did

And this

                  

But my favorite is this

I really like this one. They can get rather busy but I like the colors and design on this block.

I also did a few of these, some of which may have already had blog time.

So my picture taking was soon interrupted.

This is not conducive to photography

I also finished a couple of socks, although not a matching set.

On the left is the first RSC beaded sock .

Other pets were present and accounted for during the AM photography shoot

Elvin (aka Yeltsin) had some exercise going on.

               

Poncho was working the computer

And this bad bad bad dog is still exhausted from her early (6 AM) excursion over hill and dale yesterday. She had Kipper next door howling and me walking the fence line looking for her. One can’t very well be screaming for the dog at that early hour. She was barking and baying like there was no tomorrow. She had her collar on which means that something got her so excited that she jumped the electric fence (ouch) to go track it. Bad Dog. I have a feeling she doesn’t care and is dreaming of doing it again soon.

She’s at it again

Today I was informed that at 11:30 babies would be arriving. Well, that was something I had to see. And so does everyone else in the world.

I rushed back to the office for a few minutes of babyhood.

And when I finally located said babies look what I found-

Yup, it’s Laura, trying to disguise herself by being blurry but as you can see she’s at it again-hogging a baby. And look at our baby. Chase has become a giant. Seriously. He was smiling until I started snapping then he clammed up.

So I pried the baby out of her arms (literally, Laura had quite the grip on that thing) and tried to get him to laugh again. He is not having any of it and is staring at Ali’s (his mother) spaghetti. He is his mother’s son.

Ok, still no luck with this baby’s expression, plus we were in some seriously bad lighting.

So I went in search of another baby and handed this on off to Mary, who was more than happy to intercept.

He perked right up after that.

I found Cora over visiting with Sadie

She is either happy or sad-it’s hard to tell with babies. Laura, in the background, is secretly plotting to get a baby back. Angie, Cora’s mother, is the half person on the far right.

Well, Sadie is looking very interested and Cora is looking cute.

So, note to self, next time go in another room where the lighting is better and watch out for baby hoggers!

Pine Needles-Decorah Iowa

 

Listen up people-

Pine Needles (how many times do I have to say it-my fave quilt store-ok, my only quilt store but still…..) has opened today in Decorah Iowa.

After 2 weeks of moving they are opening to rave reviews. Well, rave review-that would be me. I am sure other raves will be coming in soon.

So look-here we go-

That is a mannequin out there in the pink on the very left hand side of the picture. Just to give you an example of how fun this town is.

They saved me a parking spot right in front. Why my car looks blue is another trick of Microsoft Live Writer. But the store looks just like that. It is very bright and roomy-but don’t take my word for it, check out the pics-

I was very surprised to learn that all the stuff from the old store fit into the new store. It seems like there should be more stuff, but I guess it is just because the store is so spacious.

 

See what I mean?

They still keep Darwin locked up in his repair room. Some things never change.

    

 

 

                    

Pine needles is now the APQS dealer. I am kinda wanting this thing. I have tried to walk out without paying before but I think they’d notice this.

 

        Look at all the room. And check out the Bernina swag. If you can call it swag. I entered to win this machine again. You’d think those girls over there would hook me up with the winning entry.

 

I already own two of these babies. I can’t say enough good things about them.

But wait-look at this----

      Here are the girls. Notice how Connie and Marsha ignore me? Thank you Suzie. Actually, Connie never ever lets us take her picture but look what I got today-

          

           

Ta-daaaa! Connie is actually smiling and not hiding from me but wait-look at THIS-

They are all smiling at the camera-it’s a first.

They have all been very good to me and treat me like family. They sign me up for classes and retreats (usually) first. They always act happy to see me. They make me laugh and tell me my quilts are beautiful. It is more than customer service and I really appreciate it. I wish all businesses could be like this one.

So congratulations on the new store-here’s to many more happy years (and one new long-arm) together.