My Office Miracle

For those of you who've seen what I call my office, you know it's very rare to be able to see the floor, the walls, the desk, etc. Now, they have been seen, but only by the select few who have been here the rare 2-3 times in the past 6 years when I had spent 4-5 weeks cleaning it out. It has everything in it. All my different crafts, knitting, clay, jewelery, genealogy stuff, computer stuff, Xmas minature wreaths, etc, etc. Well, by lucky happen stance, I met this great gal Jill. A few weeks ago she helped me out of a very sticky (literally) situation we had with exploding toilets. She is an "Organizer", like on those TV shows. When she saw my office she didn't cringe or faint dead away, or up her life insurance before entering the room, she started shooting out ideas to make it a better place to work. I hired her and she spent 2, six hour days at my house. The first was taking everything out, sorting as we went and elimating what I hadn't actually used for a long while. I have done this in the past myself but it took me 2-3 weeks and I could just never part with anything. Jill asks all those pointy questions that when you answer them - you yourself decide to let go of what you really no longer need or have use for. Then our great son Russ came over 2 weeks in a row and painter the room, ceiling and walls. No more dingy builders off white! then jill came back and I heled her put everything back in the room - but as she put things in she set the room up very different from how it had been. Now I have a seperate project table. The computer office area is completely clear to work at, the TV works (Jill has many talents) and you can find everything in the closet. Because the paint hasn't set yet, I have one pile of boxes waiting to go in that high storage shelf, and the wall shelves have a bracket that reg needs to fix before I can put all the organized knitting o the shelves. Oh - I vacuumed the room - right up to the walls ! It is sooo clean your feet sqeak when you walk in ! Look at the Sept 18 "Help Has Arrived" to see the mountains of stuff (stored in the living room) Jill got back into the room.

The Heat Never Will End but Boston Legal has

What's happening here in STIILL 100 DEGREES PLUS Mesa Arizona. We have now watched all 5 seasons of "Boston Legal" by getting the CDs from Netflix. We had never seen it ( probably conflicted with a Scifi program ) but so many people told us they loved it that we decided to rent it. What a great way to see a TV series. No commercials, little bits of extras, and I could knit the whole time. Season 5 was SOOOO poor compared to 1,2 and 3. AzGrandma

Russ comes to spend evening with us.

Grandpa had a great time Sunday afternoon at Rob and Avery and Audrey's house. He said Avery swam the whole pool over and over, and both kids had fun in the water. Our record heat breaking days are keeping Rob's pool warm.
Grandpa also said that the kids loved the Pirate stuff. I had made them their own "Pirate Treasure" bags and stuffed them with Dubloons (plastic pirate gold), Gemstones (glass rocks), and Jewels (Halloween rings ) for Grandpa to give them.
Youngest Son Russ came over Sunday night (he's a night person now because of his job) and painted the ceiling of the downstairs office. I was supposed to have the room fully ready to paint but didn't get it done ( life is never as planned ) so Russ will come back next Sunday to do the walls. They will be a Kaiki color. Here's a couple pictures of Russ taking some photos of Grandpa's Oldsmobil. The Fark photography contest (which starts every wednesday ) is "Something Green" and Russ thinks the details of some thing on the Olds, against the green color of the car, might make good entries for the contest.

More Halloween Store

Here's some more Halloween Spirit Store. A really good selection of life size animated scary figures BUT boy have the prices gone up. Reg has started making his Sarcophagus today.

Going to the SPIRIT Store

You have to buy early if you want to be sure the Halloween stores will have what you need. We learned our lesson - these past 3-4 years, every year the Halloween stores have less stock - so it's the early bird who gets to be the best Mummy, Frankenstein, or Boris Karloff! We met Rob, Avery, and Audrey for breakfast. (1st picture is Grandpa patiently waiting for me to get ready). Then we went and looked at the Target Halloween department and the "Spirit Halloween" store. At Target Grandpa and I got Avery a nice bag of old bones to scatter in the front yard. We took our time and looked at everything. They had the cutest animation dolls that sang spooky songs and danced. Avery and Audrey got to try every one of them. Now - Spirit was a much more serious store and Avery and Audrey stayed close to Papa. They had a lot of life size monsters that when you pushed there bottons did spooky things, rolled their eyes, moaned, flashed lights. Avery liked pushing the buttons. Audrey waited for Papa and Avery to push buttons for her. BUT - one section had things that started with loud hand clapps. Audrey liked those and clapped them all to start. I think she liked that she didn't have to get too close to see the show.

Help Has Arrived

Jill, the great gal who clorexed the bathrooms after the toilet explosions, is an organizer by trade. I have hired her to help me organize the back downstairs bedroom ( also know as the office ). Many of you have never actually seen the office, because of the mountains of stuff in it ! So here are pictures of it empty. And here are pictures of the living room packed with the office stuff. About 1/4 of the stuff is going into the carport sale, and about 1/4 th of the stuff was tossed. Jill has a foster boy and next week is getting his older sister too. With a bunch of my stuff we made up several packs of craft things that kids like to do for her 2 kids.

Jill is a really wonderful person. She is a very positive person and you can't help but be energized by her. She is a lot like my friend Julie. Every once in a while you get to meet people like Jill and Julie who shine sunlight everywhere they go.

Grandma's activities

In the evenings I have been knitting again (it keeps me from munching too!). Lion Brand yarn has the most wonderful newsletter and they have had free, washcloth patterns all summer long. I have already given away at least a dozen of the wash cloths I have knit so far to neighbors and friends who have seen my stack of finished product and asked for one (sometimes I hear, "whoo, can I have 2 ?" ). If you knit or crochet, check out Lion's web site at http://lionbrand.com . They also have a great "Learning" department with mini movies of how to do knit and crochet. I had forgotten long ago how to do the knitted cast on for things that need to be stretchy, and the cast on for things that need to be tight - and all the learning stuff is free.

Shopping with Grandpa

Today

we went

to JoAnn's with our coupons and got the muslin for Reg's Mummy costume.

You know, halloween is the only time that Grandpa will shop with me at craft stores. He has already been to Micheal's and Joann's a couple of times without me ! This year he was really glad I collect all those Joanns and Micheals coupons. AND - he gets me out of the craft stores before I go crazy !!! So much fun stuff at Halloween !

We stopped at Albertson's for coffee beans and bananas - we will now start saving all leftover coffee to dye the muslin mummy cloth. After we got home Reg finished his Pumpkin Pie maker (except for the book he will be holding) and finished up a second Tomestone. I picked out the saying - it is really funny . Reg says next week-end he will start the making of the life size Sarcophagus for him to be walking out of on Halloween night.

Halloween is Coming

Grandpa has started his Halloween preparations. Last week-end he made a neat Gravestone and this week-end he is working on a "pooh-pooh" Pumpkin pie making Pumpkin. He wants to have a big collection of Gravestones for a spooky cemetary this year.

Last warm Day for Swimming

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Rob's pool is still in the 90's but our pool had it's last warmth on Saturday, Sept 4th. It was barely 87 degrees, but Audrey still jumped in - Avery took a little longer - then - as usual - nobody wanted to come out! Both Avery and Audrey have really gotten comfortable in the water this year. Avery can swim across the pool and Audrey just needs someone next to her to give her tummy a boost ( just as Sydnee and Kylee used to when they were small ). Of course, we always have someone next to them at all times. The nights are now in the middle 70's and the pool is usually the temperture of the nights. On this day the kids painted the bottom of 2 stools with the color "Ariel Turquoise", made their own pizza's for lunch, jumped on Grandma and Grandpa's bed, and played with toys. Great day was had by all !