The Tooth Fairy VS. Rudolf

Happy news,  Emma has lost a tooth!  (cheering) 

 This summer Emma was playing with Mark and his friends  (Sounds bad already).  She was "accidentally", or so I am told, hit in the mouth with Mark's head.  Her two front teeth were struck and became loose, or should I say looser.  After much blood and much more crying the teeth were fine, just loose for months.  Now, thank goodness, the left tooth has fallen out, or was pulled out by mom.  Regardless, it is out.  Emma was super excited to be able to put her tooth under her pillow and get money.  After much celebration, which included dancing, and a little song called, "I lost my tooth."  Which consisted of nothing more than that line repeated hundreds of times,  we were finally able to settle down into bed.  Since she had  been sick for a couple of days sleep came fast.   John has been promoted to official "TF" duty. ( When mom is on TF duty, inevitably the tooth fairy has a bad night and doesn't make it to our house. )  John, money in hand, creeps into Emma's room to carry out his mission.   Seconds later he runs back in holding Emma's Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer stuffed animal, as it plays the theme song from the movie and it's nose flashing with bright red light.  He said he was just about to slip his hand under the pillow when he stepped on Rudolf and Rudolf began to sing.  Like the criminal he is he dropped the money, confiscated the deer and tooth in one swift movement and hightailed it out before Emma saw him.  Disaster evaded.  Looks like further preparations will be required prior to the next mission.

The Non-Quilting Business

***WARNING***

This is a post in which I complain (a lot).   Those with preexisting high stress levels or who are under the care of a physician for anger management will want to use extreme caution.

As many of you may know, I started a quilting business this January.  Since then I have quilted over 50 quilts.  Yeah!  However I have only done 3 for payment and those were for friends.  Jean, my mentor, has referred  customers to me (all of whom total 2) which is super nice since she also has a long arm quilting business.  Both of them made appointments and never showed.   (Pulling hair out at this moment)  I have dropped business cards off at all 3 fabric stores in El Paso and NOTHING.  Not even a phone call from these!!!  I plan on expanding my area a little and dropping off business cards in Las Cruses.  I am so utterly frustrated!  (Patience is not my strong suit.)  I placed an advertisement in the Paso del Norte Quilt Guild Newsletter (which I am a member)  still nothing.  I am very frustrated and disappointed.    What to do????.

Meanwhile, I continue to make and quilt my own quilts. I am pleased that my skills are to a point where I can definitely see an improvement.  I have been practicing on two new patterns one is pebbles, which I am extremely pleased with.

The second pattern is sort of a loopy flower.  This one has been a bit more difficult for me because I tend to go to fast.  I get carried away.  Before I know it, I have made more of a slinky than a flower.  Practice. Practice. Practice.

I keep telling myself things like..

• "maybe it's not time yet."
  
• "It will happen when it is meant to"
  
• "Don't rush it."
  
• "Soon."
  
• "It's not me, It's them."
• "Maybe, your crazier than originally thought." (OK, maybe not that one)
  

But the point is I am trying to stay positive and enjoy the time I have to practice.  When I can quilt at my own speed and I am not under any deadlines.  But eventually, I really would like to have clients.  Everyone has to have goals.

WHO?

 I was awakened last night to a noise i have not heard before.  As I lay awake listening to the noise, in my semi-conscious state, I thought "what the @#$@ is that!? and how can I get it to stop!"  John wakes up and says, "It's an owl."  Amazing!!! I didn't even ask the question out loud and he answered me.  I got up and peered out the window, of course since it was 4 am I couldn't see anything, but the noise appeared to be coming from the back fence.  When John got up the bird flew away.  In a matter of minutes the bird was back, this time sitting on our chimney, so that the call came straight down into our bedroom.  Let me just say, Ginger did not like that and was on "high alert."  So we laid their thinking, it will fly away, surely it has to.  After about ten minutes John chimed in with, "OK, it was pretty cool at first.  Now, it is just annoying."  He got up and went out on the deck.  He said it was sitting up on our chimney just hoo, hoohooing away.  Then it looked straight at him (dramatic music playing in the background) and SCREECHED!! then flew away.  Since he got a look at it he decided to investigate it online and this is what it was....A Great Horned Owl.

To get an idea of what it was like click here and play it for about 10 minutes at 4 in the morning.

Next week on Hoog's Wild Animal Adventures...."Coyote or Wild Dog Attacks at Zoo"

AHCHOO!

God Bless You!  Well here we are the second week of school and sick.  Emma and Jack are home today with sore throats, coughs  and fevers!  (Cough, cough, sniff,  sniff)  I have put off taking Jack to the doctor all week hoping he would just get better.  (ahchoo!)  Unfortunately, I was sadly mistaken.  Now, we have a fever too.  I'd forgotten that with school comes illness.  Emma said this morning,  "I don't want to sit next to Marcus anymore.  He always sets his dirty tissues on my arm."  (Gross!  I think my throat hurts too.)  Of all the things kids share, I think they share colds the best.  I guess we have now officially been induced into school, since we are now calling in sick, picking up make-up work and doing make-up tests.  We are off to the doctor this  afternoon for strep tests and possibly a flu shot (Shhhh don't tell that part).  After the Doctor we will have to make a stop for extra tissues, cold medicine, Vick's, Vitamin C, and possibly an antibiotic.  (and a mini-trash can for Marcus).   Wish us well.

Gotcha!

Well the past few days we have been spent chasing out varmint.  John spent hours at the hardware store pouring over traps, poisons and other violent methods of disposing of "it".  Meanwhile the little devil chewed through more boat wires, proceeded to leave cute little foot prints on the windowsill and nose prints on the window, and poop (everywhere).  It's a smart little thing.  On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the little guy set off all the traps and ate all the peanut butter without dying.  By today i figured it had a better chance of dying from a heart attack, from the peanut butter, than it did of being trapped.  I gave john a deadline of Friday morning to catch it before I called in the professionals.  I think i offended some male ego thing because he spent quite a while out in the garage today.  All the traps were rearranged and reloaded and I was assured he would be a goner....we'll see.  Here are some of the devices John used to subdue his victim.  As much as he wanted to poison the little sucker, he didn't want a decaying animal in the bottom of his boat. 

When I left to pick up the kids today I heard, rattle,rattle, rattle and I knew we had caught our vandal.  I walked around the corner and low and behold there was Poochi, as Emma has named it.   I had to let her name it she wanted to keep it!! 

John and Mark let the little guy go at the park today, miles and miles from our house.  Besides John and the damage to his boat,  the only trauma left by the event was Emma.  Mark apparently learned at a ranger talk at the Grand Canyon that squirrels were the most dangerous animal at the Grand Canyon.  Why?  because they carry fleas which carry Bubonic Plague!  So he shared this with Emma and she worried all night that we would all die of the plague.  So much for happy endings.

Project update

I have gotten a few project done recently that i thought i would share.  Just finished a pair of fingerless gloves.  I had been wanting some for the winter here.  I cannot stand to have my fingers covered.  I always feel like i am fighting the gloves to do what it is i want to do.  These were a fairly quick knit and I had a great yarn a friend of mine gave me for Christmas.  It is 100% alpaca and so soft.  I hope it holds up, i would hate to wear through them faster than it took to knit them.  

 i finished a small quilt top.  Mom had given me a "jelly roll" of batik fabric.  For those of you non-sewers a jelly roll is 15-20 different fabrics cut into 2 1/2 inch strips the length of the fabric, stacked on top of one another then rolled up and sold.  I had wanted to make this pattern for several months and always had my Christmas quilt mocking me.  Once i was able to finish my Christmas quilt I started this new quilt.  Amazingly it took only 2 days to cut and sew together.  Now I only need to figure out how to quilt it.  I am so completely happy with it i don't want to ruin the overall impression of the quilt by making the quilting the focus.  hmmm.  Any suggestions?

I still have 2 projects that are in WIP (works in progress).  They took a short timeout and with Mark's soccer practice picking up should get a lot of attention.  I am working on a Pi shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman and a short sleeved cardigan which with luck i should be able to wear this fall.  Soon I will have to get working on my Christmas shopping and knitting.  If anyone would like something specific please let me know.  I have some really cute ideas for my nieces and nephews!!

RATZ!

Thursday evening while the rest of us were at soccer practice, John was at home enjoying the peace and quiet.  Lucky dog.  He spent his extra time in the garage.   Doing what?  I never ask (safer that way).   He called me at soccer and asked, "What happened to the shade?"  We have a rather large window in the garage, covered with a cheap metal blind.  The blind was torn, shredded and had bites taken out of it.  We brain stormed a while.  Here is what we thought. We have been leaving the garage door cracked for the summer.  The garage had been getting so hot, it was actually causing the gasoline in the boat to evaporate, filling the garage with fumes.  Never a good thing.  When we would crack the garage door this problem was relieved.  The manner in which the shade was torn looked like an animal perhaps a feral cat had gotten stuck inside garage and tried to escape by climbing the shade.  John searched the garage and turned up nothing. 

Figuring our problem was resolved, we purchased a new shade on Saturday.  John started installing it on Saturday afternoon.  It was then he discovered the next clue.  Droppings.  Three different kinds of droppings.

Which could mean there are or have been three different types of animals in the garage.  Super.  Saturday after installing the new shade, John sets a mouse trap.  Saturday evening after church we come home to a trap that is sprung,  all of the bait taken and footprints all over the windowsill.  Foot prints that are bigger than a mouse.  John resets the trap with more peanut butter, and we wait.  

Meanwhile we start discussing the times when we have heard noises in the garage.  Between the time we found the shade and Sunday morning we have heard the noises in various locations around the garage.  Most notably, around the boat.  Now, when you have a rodent in your garage you question you are actually hearing the noise or if you are imagining it because you now expect to hear noises.  

Sunday morning we had planned on going out on the boat.  John went out to check the trap, and the trap was gone.  OK now we have a large, and crafty animal.  We have  had mice and chipmunks in our garages before, nothing a mouse trap couldn't handle.  Now, we need a bigger trap!   John again hears noises on the boat.  We decide to put the boat out in the drive way in hopes that the hot sun will drive the animal out of the boat, if indeed that is where it is located.  John puts Ginger on the boat to see what she finds.  She seems interested in the bow seat.  John opens the compartment and finds the next clue.  A shredded roll of paper towels and more droppings.  Now we start to empty the boat of all it's contents.  We shake everything out, find more droppings but no animal.  Now the boat sits about 3 feet off of the ground on the trailer.  So, we have an animal who is a good climber, mouse, rat, opossum, raccoon, groundhog , or squirrel???   As John proceeds through the boat he finds no other sign of the critter until the engine, 4 wires have been chewed through.  John is not a happy camper.  We unload, shake out and vacuum the boat and have uncovered nothing but destruction.  What's next....animal control and a bigger trap.