Saving the Boston Fern.....

Last fall I was at my Mom's house and it was going to freeze that night. I asked Mom is she was going to bring her fern inside so it did not freeze and she said no. She said she has tried to winter them over before and has never had any luck. Well it was such a beautiful plant that I hated to see it just die. So I took it. Rick was not to happy when he saw me carrying a huge shedding plant into his truck. With a all knowing smile Mom wished me luck as we drove away....

Well now 4 months later and lots of tender care I have  a thriving Boston Fern. When I got it I had no place to put it because it was in a hanging pot so I hung it from the curtain rod in the living room and pretty much ignored it for a couple weeks. After leafs started falling all over my living room floor I figured I better do something with it. So I took it outside and trimmed all the dead leafs off and then re-potted  it. I did a little research and found out that ferns like moist soil, humidity and should be in a north window.  Since it is winter there is not much I can do about the humidity but I was able to put it out in the porch where it gets perfect sun. I also put the pot into a bowl so I can keep water in it so the soil stays moist all the time.

So like all good daughters would do I called my Mom up and in my all knowing voice told her that I saved the plant.....

Stay warm today
Sharon

Let the countdown begin......

Only 17 more days before I get to get out of this frozen land we call home. Vegas cannot come fast enough for me. January has been endless. I was not happy today when I opened the garage door to leave for work and found that there was a 2 foot high drift in front of the door. I did not even know it was suppose to snow out. Of course I just backed out of the drive way and started my 38 mile drive to work. Not sure where the snow plows were because they surely were not out on the roads! Not a single road had been plowed yet, not even the state highways. The snow was blowing so hard that there was several time I lost the road. I finally made it to work only to find that that ground crew also decided that they did not need to come in early to plow. I got make a path through the snow to open all the buildings. By the time I got everything open my pants were wet just about up to my knees. Ground finally made it in when I was on my last building-lots of good they did me :(
Okay I am done ranting now.....

Now that the sun is out and the roads are somewhat plowed I think it is safe to say that the snow is very pretty. Maybe Rick and I will finally get to get our CC skies out and go skiing on Sunday after work. They claim it is going to be 31 degrees out tomorrow.

Not much has been going on. My days off were pretty uneventful. Sunday was a lazy day for me. I didn't really want to do anything so I didn't. Rick and I ran to Mankato because he wanted to go to Menards. Since we were there I made him stop at Jo Ann fabric so I could get some fabric. I made Hannah a pair of Green Bay Packers  pajama pants. She was very excited to get them. I had to use fleece because they did not have any in flannel. It is the first time I have ever sewn anything out of fleece, it is kind of a pain. I finally got a good pattern for the women's pajama pants. I even added pockets to them.
Tuesday night we had league. We have so many new people shooting league that we had to shoot a double line. It is nice to have new people there, it was a fun night. I even shot somewhat good.

The rest of the week was just work. Sunday is my last day then I get three days off.

17 days and counting......
Later Sharon

“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” ― Fred Rogers

I thought with all the cold weather we have all endured over the last week a picture of some sunshine was needed....

I like every other person in Minnesota am glad that it has warmed up a little now. It was nice to be able to go outside yesterday and not freeze.

Last weekend Rick and I went to Des Moines for the IA Pro-Am. I did not shoot but Rick did. We had a lot of fun, it is always nice to see all our archery friends. We stayed at a hotel that was about a block from the shoot. It was nice to be so close to it. The last time I went we stayed at a hotel that was connected to the event center by sky-ways but we ended up having to walk forever to get there. So it was well worth the couple minute walk in the cold to  be closer. Rick was not to happy with his shooting the first day but came back the second day and shot very good. We got home Sunday around night around 7:30.

I was super happy that I did not have to work Monday when the high for the day was -17. The only time I went outside was when I had to rescue Dexter. Poor puppy went out to do his business and got so cold that he froze up. I had to go get him and carry him in the house. -17 is way to cold to have to pee outside!
I made a big pot of Chili for supper and had a nice fire going all day.

Tuesday we had our first night of Winter League. Rick and I went early so we could get the range all warmed up. When we got there we discovered that sometime that day the heat had gone out, it was about 55 degrees and dropping fast! After several phone calls and several people working on the furnace we still had no heat. Since everyone was there and we had several new members we decided we would shoot in the cold. We did change the game from a 60 arrow 300 round to a 30 arrow 300 Vegas round. My hand  were so cold by the end of the night. I was happy to go home and warm up.

Yesterday my day did not start out to good. I was responding to a call and went to back out the work vehicle when I backed into a taxi van that was parked alongside the curb behind me. I looked both ways before I backed out but did not even see the taxi parked behind me. The curb behind our parking stall has always been fire lane so  no one is ever parked there. A few days ago they decided to make it a spot for the taxi cabs to park when they are picking up students. The trouble with it is it is pretty much imposable for us to back out with them parked there if we went to go south. No one bothered to ask us before deciding to change the signs. We are now trying to get the signs removed so they are not parking there anymore. Regardless of what they do I will be checking better behind me from now on.

  I am just glad it was not my vehicle that I crashed :)

I got a new pajama pants pattern yesterday and hope to try it out on my days off. I think this one should be much better fitting then the last one. I am going to use elastic and a drawstring on the waist band and try and put pockets in them. All three of the girls wanted me to make these changes. Christa is insisting that I open Nana's Pajamas this year. I keep telling her I don't have time.......


Give someone a hug today
Sharon

A new year......

Okay I never blogged about the end of 2013 so I guess I will have to do that before moving on to the new year.  I had a wonderful seven days off. I had to work until 1:00 on Christmas day and came home to all the kids and grandkids already there. We had lots of fun eating, playing games and opening gift.

Cassie got Amy this shirt for a gift. It is perfect for Amy since she is late for EVERYTHING! She is wearing the pajama pants that I made for her. Everyone loved there pajama pants.

                                Liam and Jese playing an intense game of chess  

                                           Josie has been enjoying her doll house.

Since I had all the days off I wanted to get the coat I had bought fabric for on black Friday made. I had set aside all day Monday and Tuesday to get it sewn. Well on Monday morning I went to start sewing and my sewing machine broke! I was so upset. It was squealing like crazy so I figured it need to be oiled. So I oiled it like I have several times over the years and it did no good. So I started to take apart everything I could and oil where ever I thought it might help. But  the squealing just got louder and louder. I figured I better stop before I really broke something. My sewing machine is a Viking that is at least 30 years old. It is such a good machine so I will take it to get fixed. Of course knowing that it would not be fixed that day and knowing that I wanted to sew that day I did what anyone would do and went out and bought a new sewing machine. I went to Walmart and looked at all the machines they had. I picked a basic one out, look up the reviews on my phone and saw they were all good and bought it! It was only $140. and I figured it would be good enough to get me though until my old one gets fixed.

 So here is the machine that I got. I am happy to say that it worked pretty good. It even went though 4 layers of wool fabric without to much trouble. I was not real happy with the button hole maker. It worked just okay. I think it would work better on a thinner fabric but wool was just to much for it to handle. So overall I would say it is a good machine for the money. I will now have a spare if my old one breaks down again. I will take the old one in to get fixed the next time I go to Mankato. 

The dogs were not to happy with me spending my day in the sewing room. I had to bring one of there beds in the room so they could be by me without sitting on my lap.

I wanted to have the jacket done to wear on New Years Eve but I did not get it finished until New Years day. I think it turned out really good. I am happy with how it fits. I had to laugh when I saw the picture above because the top right button is way to high! Amy was waiting for me to finish because she wanted to use my camera but I would not let her have it until I took a couple of pictures of the coat. So I was rushing to sew the button's on and I guess I did not look to make sure I was even before I sewed the last one on. I have since taken it off and put it where it belongs :) Christa is making me a super cute hat with a matching button on it so I can really be styling when I wear it.

This year for Christmas I gave Rick tickets to see Louie Anderson on New Years Eve at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. We had talked about going to see him other years but just never did. So I got him tickets and my friend Jane got her husband, Paul tickets too. We went out for supper first at Buca's. It was a really fun evening. Louie Anderson put on a great show. I have not laugh so hard in a long time. What is even better is that we were back in Waseca before 10:00. We are both use to going to bed early so 10:00 is a late night for us :)

Today I am back to work. I sure hated to come back. It gets harder and harder everyday to make myself go to work. If only someone would just give me a ton of money I could quit! I don't think that will happen anytime soon so I guess I will just keep on working......

Happy New Year everyone. I have high hopes that 2014 is a going to be a great year!

Later Sharon