Projects (yep, we're still here!)

I know, it's been a looooong time since I've let you in on what we are doing.  I'm sorry.  Don't feel bad though, I've not been good about keeping in touch with anyone (don't feel any better?  Sooorrryyy!) :~)

I have much to share with you but I can't promise that I will keep it in cronological order, so I won't.  I'll just try to keep you entertained as we go along.  I went to pick up the boys the Wednesday before the weekend before Father's Day weekend. . .  Did I lose you already?  Sorry (kind of a theme here).  Well, when I called Chris that Saturday or Sunday when I was going to bring the boys home, Chris said to stay and wait another week.  WHAT?!  I'd packed like 4 shirts and a few pairs of shorts, definitely not enough for a week and a half trip.  Good thing my mom still has here laundry day on Monday.  Does anyone else do that?  I find it interesting that I don't.  We wash clothes whenever we have a load ready but all growing up Mondays were the day.  Anyway, that has no bearing on my story, just a random thought.  hehe

So, the weekend of Father's Day, I brought our little boys (when you go through this situation, you are reminded of how young and small they really are, even if phyisically, Taite puts his arms above mine when we hug now because he is taller) home and they got to see the mellowed out "War Zone".  Gone were the hourly/minutely (is that a word?) choppers flying over, the constant dump trucks and most of the troopers.  No traffic was being directed at the four way stop entering the Dunes and gone were the traffic jams.  Up were the tents used by the National Guard and desert looking trucks, previously only seen on TV, are now a common sight.  The boys were awed when we arrived, but that soon went away as they found what I will call a small miracle to come from this flood.  Our neighbors (Joan and Barry ~ I'll used names because it gets too confusing if I don't), two doors down, have their daughter and her family (Brooke & Stu have a daughter together: Katie and Brooke has 3 children from a previous marriage:  Tanner, Keaton & Megan) living with them as they left their home due to the possible flooding in their home at the Wynstone development, north of here.  The blessing is that Tanner & Keaton are exactly Taite & Bray's ages and all 4 get along better than brothers!  The boys play together daily and we've even done things together as families and we all get along great!  I know it seems too good to be true.  haha  Last weekend Brooke & Stu invited us to go to a Bandit's (indoor arena football) game.  They were going to tail gate with another couple and invited us to come along.  When we arrived, they had also ran into a childhood friend of Stu's so our tail gating group was even bigger and everyone had a great time despite it being like 105 in the parking lot!  The hit of the party was Stu's friend's mom had brought their beer pong table (it actually folds up and had a football field on it, but the cups had water in them).  The kids played "water" pong for probably an hour!  We called it a college prep party!! LOL

Here is what some of our stuff looks like in the storage building we are sharing with Tom and Jane. . . Yeah, finding what we are looking for is not so much fun.

Here is the view looking towards the west.  That dirt pile is the levee and yes, there is water sitting on the other side.  It's only back-water, but the levee is fixed in various spots at least once a week.  How do we know?  We can't see the repairs being done, but they take the dirt and rock from behind our house where it's one of the stock-piled places of "supplies" for emergency situations.  They use that stuff until they can start hauling it in with bigger trucks.  Not much work gets done on those days.  That's because I am working from home so the boys can play with the neighbors and I can keep an eye on things too.  Well, to an extent.  Yesterday I found my favorite flowered travel mug had been broken and was sitting in the garage.  The boys (yes, all 4 of them) had a "thing" last week and they made hot cocoa almost everyday ~ yes, it was about 95 degrees with 100% humidity here too.  Go figure.

Since our basement project is on hold (reluctantly. . . there is still the threat of sewage back-up and a levee could break) we worked on some other projects this weekend.  We replaced these lights in the boys' bedrooms with ceiling fans.  The coolest part????  The new fan/lights are turned on with a remote :~)

 Brayton was most determined to do the wiring ~ good thing you had to stand on a ladder to reach the other set of wires so we didn't have to argue too hard that he couldn't actually do the wiring.

 Maybe it is because we are delaying finishing the basement that I have such a yearning to sew!  Tonight I was going to work on using some sheers I got for free at a garage sale into new curtains for the sidelight when I came across my favorite things.  Fat quarters!  I could explain it in detail, but basically, it's a small chunk of fabric, folded up all nice and pretty and it's an easy way to get lots of fun fabrics without having to wait in line for them to be cut!  haha (sorry I didn't feel like rotating this before I uploaded it)  Even though I'm missing my favorite mug, these make me very happy!

 These are another of my favorites: 5" strips.  My super-favorite part?  They only cost $.50/strip, but they are a super way to add some fun fabrics without paying $3 (about the price of fat quarters).  These little strips will also make lots of reversible headbands and key wrist thingys!!!  You can't get a wine bag out of these babies unless you decided to go funky and piece together fabrics, which is an option, it would just take longer.

 I have to make this quick ~ I'm keeping my husband up. . . Don't these colors make you drool????  I LOVE THEM!!!!  These I picked up for "help" in my new sewing room!

 I love these fall fabric colors and I have an idea for those too. . .

 These are just fun and funky and I have no plans other than headbands!

 Fabric for a wine bag for my FIL (he usually takes one bottle in a two-bottle bag) :~)

 This is left over from my mom's wine bag and I thought I could get a headband out of it for me, but maybe just some little girl headbands.  Or a key wrist thingy.

 Okay, if you go garage saling or search on CL, I am looking for one of these:

It doesn't have to be this tall, but I want the space to be squares, because this is similar to what the quilt shop uses where I buy most of my fat quarters and they look so darn cute in the white one (I would paint it so if you find one, I don't want to spend much!)  Anyway, gotta run!  Take care and I hope to update you more often than this one took!!