Late night cleaning observations

~ I get much more cleaning done when The Dude is here using my computer - because I can't get distracted by it and sit down "for just a minute" instead of cleaning.

~ Crayon chunks multiply and hide in every nook and cranny of this house.

~ Pieces of crayon wrappers multiply exponentially and find even more interesting places to hide.

~ I am thankful that my kids aren't into Legos - but stepping on a toy car is also painful.

~ Sand should be banished from every playground in the world. Or shoes should be made so that they are sand-proof.

~ Hardwood floors are easier to clean than carpet when sand is involved.

~ The kids bring home entirely too many papers from school.

~ I don't have the burning desire to clean off the top of my desk until someone else is sitting there using it.

~ All couch cushions should be permanently attached to the couch, with no way for anything to slip underneath them. On second thought, hard plastic benches that are able to be powerwashed might be a better idea than anything that is upholstered.

~ Knowing that my mop is broken and unusable makes me want to mop the floors more than usual. Knowing that I can't do that is irritating me to death.

~ Sitting here making a list of late night cleaning observations while The Dude runs home to get paperwork that he needs is just enough of a distraction to make me not want to clean anymore tonight - but maybe if I get off of my butt right now, I can have the top of the desk cleaned off by the time he gets back over here.

She is going to kill me.....

So my computer has been running really really slow lately. And I finally figured that it probably has something to do with the fact that there is virtually no space left on it.

This was after I started removing stuff - it was so bad that the
status bar was actually red.

Anyway, we all know that I like to take pictures. And I have this really bad habit of just dumping all of the pictures off of the camera and onto the computer and not doing anything with them. I don't delete the blurry ones or anything. I just dump and go.

I started going through the pictures tonight, which started in August 2008. I found so many duplicates - I would dump pictures one day, say 50 of them. Then the next day, when I dumped again, those same 50 would dump, along with another 50 or so. That didn't happen all of the time, but it happened quite often. So I started deleting - which meant going through folder by folder and looking at pictures. It really didn't take as long as I thought that it would to go through the 5 months of 2008 - but I still ended up with just over 4GB of pictures just for those 5 months. I have 4 more YEARS after that.

Anyway, when going through old pictures like that, there are sure to be a lot of uncovered gems.

Exhibit A: (Yes, I know the size is wonky. Blogger hates me tonight.)

I'm back! So...you want to see the quilt?

I've been kind of MIA for the past couple of days - my computer monitor decided to die on me, and while I could still play around on my facebook page, it's just way too hard to blog from my phone. So I just took a break. But now, thanks to The Dude and his spare monitor, I'm back up and running!


I did finish the quilt, and I delivered it yesterday. But, before I show you that, I have a couple of other fun pictures first.

 This is my crazy rosebush in front of my house. Apparently, the rose did not get the memo that it's already mid-October and we've already had below-freezing temperatures a couple of times. I don't know why I'm surprised - I have pictures of it blooming last year (or was it the year before?) in November or December.  Silly thing.

For a more seasonal look, my mums are also blooming. They actually don't look that fabulous though - I had planted them last year in pots on my front steps, and never did anything with them. I figured that I'd just have to replace them every year, because I didn't realize that mums were the kind that came back (I can never remember if those are annuals or perennials). Anyway, they started growing again this spring, and they're really tall and scraggly because I didn't pinch them back or whatever it is that I was supposed to do with them. Oh well - live and learn, right?

Later this afternoon, we heard a bunch of sirens - which to be honest, is not that common in this town. I looked outside and realized that there was something happening, but I couldn't tell what it was at first. And then I heard the roar!

Yep, it's Toy Run time again!

Hundreds of bikers were cruising past, so of course the kids and I ran out to watch. They definitely had a beautiful day weather-wise to do it.

Kids walking back to the house after watching
the Toy Run.

So, the quilt.

It's done. I'm not 100% happy with it, because of the issues that I had with my machines. But, I was able to borrow another machine from a friend and got the quilting done on it. But I think all in all, in came out ok.

Here are a few shots of it in progress:

Still on the frame, but done with the quilting.

Quilting done, off of the frame, ready to be trimmed.

Trimming the batting/backing to size

Attaching the binding.

And, voila! Done.

I miss my clothesline. That always made it so much easier to get pictures of finished quilts! But many thanks to The Dude, Emily, and Jared for helping me to get this shot!

Also, I did shoot some video of the actual quilting process so that those who were wondering could get a better idea of how the whole quilting frame gizmo worked - BUT, because of my slow internet connection, it is taking well over an hour to upload a 5ish minute video. Once that's uploaded though, I will post that as well. And if you want to see it, and don't see me post it, feel free to nag me about it.

Random shots - because my computer is stupid.

I am having some major problems with my computer right now, so I'm just going to toss up a couple of random pictures from the past few days - partially because I've been meaning to post them, and partially just to see if I *can* post anything.

This computer is on the verge of being drop-kicked through the window. Seriously.

Sarah's newly patched (again) kneepads for volleyball. I swear we are going to make them last for one more month...

The boys found a friend to play with during Sarah's games the other night. Too bad this little girl wasn't there for the entire 4 hours, because they got really bored after she left.

Emily's first games (yesterday). She's in the back right, just in front of the line judge in the orange shirt. They won one match and lost one.

Daniel tried so hard to watch part of the race with me last night, but he just didn't make it.

Promotion Sunday at church today. Jared received his Bible engraved with his name. They do this for all of the third graders every year - this year, he was the only one in the entire church!
Hopefully, I'll figure out what is going on with this stupid computer, and then I can get back to normal again (whatever normal is around here)...but for now, I'm just going to see if I can even post this or not.