Homecoming 2014

It's that time of year again. This year for Homecoming Destiny wanted a short dress with a skirt "like they have on Dancing with the Stars." I had to do some thinking about how to accomplish that. Sewing patterns are pretty scarce these days.

So I found this pattern:

And I talked her into using the top from the blue dress and the skirt from the pink dress. She wanted her school colors (red and blue with some white) so we decided on a sparkly red satin with red lace and red chiffon. For the fluffy skirt I decided to make a tulle underskirt.

Cutting out the red lace. I was pretty nervous because it's been a long time since I did this kind of sewing. I didn't notice until I was getting the fabric and notions that it was an INVISIBLE ZIPPER. It's probably been 30 years since I did an invisible zipper, and I'm pretty sure there's a reason I haven't tried it since.

And finally the finished product

I wasn't entirely happy with it but Destiny liked it which is all that matters!

The Family

It's not very often we have the entire family together under one roof any more. Drew and Andrea came for a visit along with their boys, Damein and Hayden. Here's a picture of the entire clan, Apparently I am now a matriarch, When did THAT happen?

**UPDATED 2014*** The whole clan at Wrigley Field. There's three boys now. Blake was born in 2013.

How time flies

My goodness, it's been over a year since I've been here. A lot has happened (or not) since then. Drew has a little boy Damein who turned one year old on November 8. Shayna and the girls are still living here. She had a job at the little gas station on the corner. Then that one closed and she was moved into their other station in town. Now they are making noises about closing that one too. Oh, well, she has been there long enough to collect unemployment.

Not too much progress has been made on the trailer or property. Ray just doesn't have the oomph to get up and do it, I guess. So we still don't have a master bath room (or a tub at all) and I don't have my chickens. I'm still working at Walmart, thankfully, so the bills are paid but there is precious little money for extras. My family doesn't understand this of course, they think I can pull more cash out of my butt whenever I want.

Ike blows through

Well Hurricane Ike visited us on Sunday. He was still a big blowhard by the time he got here even through we didn't get any much needed rain out of it. The wind broke one of the trees in the front yard in half and sent it toward the front of the trailer. Luckily, it broke far enough up and was far enough away that only the tips of the leaves brushed against the front door on the way down. We would have been MAJORLY screwed if the trailer had been hit, since it is too old to be insurable.

We lost power around 8 Sunday morning. It took until noon today to get power back. Could be worse, I guess. A lot of customers who live in Kentucky came through my line yesterday and said they were told it was going to be a week before they got power back. It seems their utilities sent crews to Texas to help there, and didn't have enough manpower to fix their own problems.

Back to normal, though. Really makes you appreciate flush toilets.

Thinking about making changes

My car has a new tire, but the transmission is still doing odd things. Right now I am driving it with the overdrive off, which seems to help. However, at some point it is going to die and then what do I do? Can't exactly walk 35 miles to work. Driving the Suburban, well, what's the point? I would be working for nothing but the gas to go back and forth.

I have come across a work at home agency that seems legitimate. It is called Alpine Access, and they do customer service call center work from home. Yeah, I know, not exactly what I wanted to get back into but I do have quite a bit of experience at it, and working at home would be a big plus. Not much flexibility, although from what I've read a more set schedule than what I'm currently doing which would be a BIG plus.

Shayna is now back down here. All of a sudden two days ago she came onto Yahoo Messenger and said she wanted to come back down here, she just couldn't take it up there any more. She was nervous about whether she had enough gas to make it (and WE sure didn't have any way to help if it turned out she didn't) but in the end she did and got here about 1 am this morning. So now that she is here, Ray could certainly look for a job as having someone here for Destiny is no longer a problem. If he could get one making the same as I'm making at Walmart, I would definitely try for the at home work. It would sure make doing things around here easier.

Keep a sense of humor

First, the good. This is a picture of Drew and Andrea on their wedding day, in the chapel in Las Vegas. Good looking guy, isn't he? Looks just like his Mom LOL.

The rest of today didn't go so great. On my way to work, I just get on I-24 and BLAM goes my left front tire. Now, my spare is no great shakes, either. It's one of those stupid donut things they give you these days, and has been used enough that it's shot. But it's all I have, so there I am on the side of the interstate changing my tire.

A very nice state trooper stopped and helped. This one actually helped, not like the one who stopped the one time and sat behind me with his lights going, watching me change the tire in the dark, in the rain, in my whites. He seemed a little surprised, though, that I actually knew what I was doing. It's changing a tire, for heaven's sake, not brain surgery. How hard can it be? Of course, this is far enough South that there's the "don't get your hands dirty, little lady" mentality.

Getting Better

I went back north this week to pick Destiny back up. The job at the VA hasn't materialized (although he hasn't gotten a rejection letter, either, so I guess there is still hope) and school started August 14, so we decided to bring her back here for school. Besides, they just can't take living with Mike's family any more, that was a MAJOR reason for his breakdown in the first place and he realizes that. He's making arrangements to have his parole moved down here. Hopefully they will all be here before too much longer.

The weather here has been MUCH better the past few days. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s. The tomato plants are finally starting to set fruit, if the weather cooperates we may actually get some off our own plants yet. Jim of course scoffs at my "little box" of a garden, but hey, if I had spent time and money on dozens of tomato plants and they were that scraggly and scrawny I'd be EXTREMELY pissed. Better to learn the ins and outs of a new growing zone on a few test plants first and then expand. He seems to forget he's been down here 10 years and his first gardens were nothing to write home about, either.

I finally got the tar paper for the old shed roof. I had planned on getting the roll roofing with this last paycheck but had to use that money to run north to get Destiny. I really want to get that shed done! I have my chick order all planned LOL and if it goes on too much longer I won't be able to do them this year.