Hard Worker

Seems like I was super busy all week but I didn't get a lot of sewing done. I did get 10 cloth books made. I made 5 Mother Goose and 5 Three little Pigs. The Mother Goose ones were sold, but the Three Little Pigs is a new book - the illustrations are by Mary Englebreits and are so cute!

I have an order for 10 Bible Quiet Books that I need to get out by the middle of next week. They are much harder and more time consuming than these little cloth books.

My shipment of towels for pull over bibs and humanitarian stuff came today. Brandon was here and helped me bring it all in. Brandon was so impressed that the mail man brought me so many presents.

He pushed and rolled them up the ramp. It is hard work moving something that weighs as much as you do. At one point he said, "Granny, stop taking picutres and help me!"

Check out that face!

Counting the boxes and taking inventory.

We can flush the toilets! Yipeee!

It is fixed!!! Last night when we replaced the old pump with the new one and turned it on ------- water gushed out every where! I suppose it is typical for the funneefarm that the sewer pump goes out but that is not all. The pipe was broken where it goes out of the tank. So it was another night with no flushing then of all things, a blizzard hit.

We woke up to this to do the work in! Those snowflakes were big enough to be snowballs!!

This morning Steve had to dig a hole 4 feet deep big enough for him to get down in, cut off the old pipe and put in the new one. Those of you who have been unfortunate enough to be here when the sewer pump went out before know eactly what I am talking about. Soooooo, after 3 trips to town for parts and only 4 or 5 hours of work in an April blizzard it was finished! We waited the mandantory 5 hours for the glue to dry and turned it on!!

Yippeeee!

The toilets are flushed, dishwasher run - only the basement bathroom left to clean cuz the toilet ran over. (which stinks, cuz I just cleaned it before this happened!)

But all is well now - Steve and April took me out to dinner and I am going to bed and it is only 9:30.

Sorry guys - but Steve is now the brown noser board leader with a whopping 20 points - you have to admit that he earned it.

In between holding parts and doing what I could to help Steve, I did get to spend a little time cutting out some cloth books for a new order - I never actually made it to the sewing machine today. Guess I will have to survive until Monday before I can get a little "therapy".

Life on the not so Funnee Farm

I vacuumed the living room and under the couch cushions, cleaned the refridgerator, cleaned bathrooms upstairs and down. I only had time for 45 minutes on the treadmill. Created a new account for my respite billing and got my billing done for March. Balanced my accounts and paid bills online. Put clean sheets on my bed. Purchased new pump in hopes that someone will show up to put it in for me - threw a few towels on the basement bathroom floor to mop up the mess once again. Working hard boosts my spirits or at least makes me to tired to care about things that go wrong.

I got online and ordered transfer paper, towels for bibs, new tags for Dry Creek Design and a few things to complete some humanitarian projects - spending money is a great spirits booster! I sneaked in a few minutes and finished a couple of quiet book pages- ahhhh, therapy.
Next I picked up Merilee's kids and a respite client, too. Luckily, April showed up with left overs for dinner so we didn't have to eat bread and water.

Steve helped me worked on the sewer pump - of course one pipe broke - we hurried to the co-op and got that replaced before they closed. We couldn't find a pipe wrench so Steve went to a friends house to borrow one. Home again - of course the oulet on the pump was a different size than the last one. Will have to wait til morning to get a different pump or an adapter. Mean while the toilets are filling up and the sink is full of dirty dishes, but I have lots of help - if all goes well, we will be in business first thing in the morning.

Here is the lineup of kids on for the evening laughing at cartoons! Couldn't help but bring a smile to my face.
Such is life on the not always so funnee Funneefarm!

Pity Party

Most of you know that John (pappy)(husband) is disabled and has been for the last 21 years. He hasn't been too bad, but the last 4 or 5 years he has had several major surgeries and just hasn't quite recovered. We get to spend a lot of time together, but we don't go any where much except to doctor appointments. He spends all day, almost every day, in bed sleeping, reading or watching TV. I was really looking forward to today, we were supposed to go to Billings for a dr. appointment- of course I was going to get groceries, pick up stuff for "therapy" (sewing) and paintball and at least eat at a fast food place or maybe Red Lobster if he wasn't too miserable by the end of the day. Not to be. He didn't sleep well last night and his shoulder hurt too bad so he couldn't go. I guess I should be used to it, but it is hard. I hate to drag him with me, but I don't like to leave him home either. And, you can't drive clear to Billings just for sewing supplies. Sigh.
Lance just came upstairs and informed me that the toilet won't flush - I checked the breakers, outlet and pump - everything works except the pump. So now the nasty job of pulling the pump up out of the sewer and putting a new one ($400) down in. Not as easy as it sounds as many of you know who have helped replace it in the past. Broken pump means no showers, laundry, toilet flushing or dishwasher - which is currently full of dirty dishes. Sigh, Sigh.

The best thing for feeling sorry for yourself is to get busy - so here I go!

Added to Inventory!!

This week I finished the 76 bibs that I started last week. They are folded and on the shelf. I really like these new towels, they have cute little animals and are cute colors. You can check out all the cute bibs I have including Disney ones at my website http://www.tctwest.net/~dcdesign/home.html

I also finished 10 quiet books that were sitting on the shelf half done and made 4 more super capes for a new order.

My humanitarian projects this week were 5 bibs, 8 pairs of booties and I put the binding on the quilt that Merilee and Amber tied last weekend.

I am getting low on Mother Goose Quiet Books , I have a lot of store bought cloth books that have been waiting to be made and I am trying to find fabric for 15 crib sheets ordered by a day care in New Mexico. I need to get some quilt tops ready for the 14th for our group project day - hopefully some people will show up to help me tie them.

Sigh, I guess I better quit blogging and get busy - the more "therapy" the better.

Who is that masked man?

LANCE!!!

He helped in the shed cleaning guns and waiting on customers.

Lance and Shadow refereed for me. Lance walked over 16,000 steps on the paintball fields - no treadmill for him today!

He tried out the targets.

Lance has Williams Syndrome and as you know kids who are different aren't always treated as nice as they should be. This group of kids was great with Lance. They made him feel accepted and important. They even invited him to go to town and have pizza with them after a long day of paintballing.

Joe is my head ref, I couldn't run this place without him. He is so good to Lance and let him hang out with him all day.

More Grandchildren Visit the Funneefarm

April brought her kids down from Laurel on Monday. Chaos again - but after all - we live on the Funneefarm! April stayed until Wednesday, then left to go to Missoula to dry pack some food storage stuff. The Kids stayed until Friday when Merilee took them home on her way to the Stake Temple Day.

First thing on the agenda was watching Tom and Jerry Cartoons with Pappy.It is so funnee to hear them all in the bedroom laughing. I think Pappy laughs harder than the kids.

Next was a hike and picnic to Devil's Kitchen.

April and the kids.

There are lots of cool rock formations and awesome colors of stone cliffs.

Seth had a ball climbing on rocks. He really struggled with this one.

But he finally made it to the top - to "rest my wobbly legs from too much hiking!"

Of course, they all "helped" with the sewing.

Brenna and Ashlyn sat here for hours handing me pins and supplies.

Seth helped with the clocks for the quiet books. Ashlyn took this picutre of him marking the center dots for the clock hand attachments.

Cute picture of Brenna. She calls Pappy "Happy" - at least she doesn't call me Dopey or Grumpy although I can be both at times!

They are gone now - quiet once more but still crazy here on the Funneefarm.