Hanging Out in Graveyards

I don't know what it is about hanging out in graveyards that I find so soothing? I've never been creeped out to be in one. In my senior year, I used to eat breakfast in one. But unfortunately, I've spent the better part of 18 years visiting my children in one or another. 

I can't say I feel a particular "connection" to any soul lingering around. I don't go & "feel" people in the cemetery specifically. But I do feel a sense of not being alone. 

I run almost daily in our local cemetary ~mostly because I've deemed it a safe place to teach my spastic lab HOW to jog safely with his human (me) without giving said human road rash, over-extended knees, shin splints, etc.

Running in the cemetery gives me a better cushion to run on while I'm training Smokey not to jerk my bod around too much or stop on a dime or take off like a bat out of hell! 

And while I'm in my morbid sanctuary I feel I'm away from prying eyes that just might get more than a few laughs at my expense during these training sessions. I'm not overly affected by what I think others think of me, and yet having my body hurt, landing on the road or losing control of the dog is something I DON'T want to share with the general public!

This week found me at my church's graveyard 3 different times, trying in earnest to get some decent pictures of Montie's newly "installed" marker. 

We commissioned David Gillespie to hand-carve Montie's stone. The attention to detail is dramatic. If you decide to check out his website, you'll see Montie's stone featured on the front page as well.

The gateway to the cemetery...

Our church Donegal Presbyterian 

The grounds as reached by going around to the right...

The reflecting pond...

I walked all around the grounds this past week ~ and yet we still couldn't bring ourselves to attend Sunday services. 

It's complicated. It's sad to be there still. The sadness can still be overwhelming... 

... and all the while our caring friends watch... and yet, it's uncomfortable. It's an anxiety-filled time when we go to services. If we attend upstairs & early, I see the casket on funeral day, see Marshall in the  podium honoring his son with words I cannot believe he's able to deliver so eloquently. And if we attend downstairs later, I see us standing in black next to the casket, hugging so many who came to show support, seeing the video of pictures of happier times rolling over and over, and I see the kids laughing & realizing surreally that "life goes on" amidst my heart breaking.

The carver, David, helped Marshall dig the area & install the stone during our freakish snowstorm on October 29. It seemed wrong to have Marshall digging there, for him to have to install it, and yet he seemed to fulfill a sense of duty doing so. 

In some ways it's a relief to have it finally done, after the many emails, discussions about pictures & wording; and yet there's a finality in it being there. There's nothing left to do FOR Montie ~not that I think he really cares about a slab of stone where he is! 

I know his body is there... and I still can't believe my son is buried, but I never feel him there. Ever... and so I've been to the newly installed marker more this week than I've visited the site in the better part of a year. And I don't really want to go back...

Blogging Blahs

Have y'all gone through the blogging blahs yet? 

I seem to have hit a bump in my blogging road since the flood of Hurricane Lee struck. 

I'm sure it's a mixture of part exhaustion, part depression, and part forgetting what I did that might've been interesting, and that probably circles back to the part exhaustion. 

My body is tired of 12-15hour cleaning days spent lugging boxes, scrubbing surfaces, weeding through random crap that was thrown quickly into packing boxes in trying to save said crap from the flood, all the while also dealing with my beloved kitty, Stanley dying, my Grandma passing away, and Montie's gravestone being delivered. 

No, I haven't been to see it yet. Don't ask me why, cause I'm not sure. I care too much about it, I care too little about it ~ both statements would be accurate depending on which day. 

But I've set a date for myself on Monday to go visit it bright & early & to take pictures. 

Of course this doesn't exclude other mentally exciting events such as my daughter being attacked by her ex & he subsequently going to jail (court date in Dec. of which to look forward!), my hub's truck dying, my daughter calling from a cornfield  which she'd landed within when she hit black ice, a vacuum dying, a broken carpet cleaner, hormonally charged fights between my two teenage girls (the last of which resulted in stuffing/filling being stuck to my family room ceiling ~and yes, it's still there), etc... 

In the meantime, I've actually quilted a LOT of quilts that haven't been shown. During flood time, the shop I quilt for called to say a woman had 11 quilt **11 QUILTS** she needed quilted by the following week. Wouldn't you know this was while my large quilting machine was torn down & residing on my eldest daughter's bed (in protection from first floor flooding.) 

Whatever, that's Murphy's Law, eh?

BUT I got 'em done! 

But I digress, now I'm off on a tangent. And that's my brain & my life these last few months. Haphazard & scattered (more than is even usual for me!) 

So to wrap up my blah blog, some eye candy...

T-shirt top quilted with "flames"

This one had very fluffy batting!

A garden top quilted with "fishes"

 A Christmas top quilted with ____ -ugh, I can't remember & I'm just way too lazy at this moment to drag myself two rooms away to look (I'll probably be annoyed w/myself over this tomorrow, but oh well....)

A warm, sunny day for Dino to enjoy a small green spot in the backyard

And a few days later we had a snowstorm!! 

~I hope you're all enjoying this autumn ~ 

The Flood of Sept. 2011

I've been absent on blogger for more weeks than usual thanks mostly to Hurricane Lee.

Lee blew through on Wed, Sept 8th with torrential rain like I've never seen. I was standing in Walmart marveling at the loudness of it coming down & heard through that vast box store when my Dad called to ask if I'd heard they were calling for "life threatening flooding conditions". 

No, I had not. Somehow we'd been thoroughly warned & properly prepared when Hurricane Irene blew through but were utterly oblivious about Lee's impending doom.

Being we live on the Susquehanna River within a flood plain, we do tend to take notice of these predictions. Fortunately, it takes mighty rain to flood our house specifically. 

Unfortunately, Lee brought Mighty Rain. 

Thurs, Sept 9th I was up bright & early to see what was what with regard to school, only to find out it was cancelled & that the predictions coming through on our local tv channel was saying we could get enough water to fill our basement & also several feet of our first floor. 

IT WAS TIME TO MOBILIZE MY TROOPS!!! 

Woke hubby, older daughter, and younger daughter at 7am saying, "Out of bed NOW. We need to pack up & move everything upstairs!!!!" 

I called my brother who lives in the next town over & was already at work. He & my SIL dropped everything, brought their trailer & lots of coolers to pack up my fridge/freezer, and helped us all day. And later that day they took 3 of us in plus one of our dogs (the dainty whippet, NOT the spastic lab!) & our kitty.

My parents dropped their plans, managed to get through/around road blockades, which were starting to go up keeping un-locals out, to get to us to watch my brother/SIL's two young sons so they could be with us packing & lugging things up and/or out. 

Several of my older daughter's friends dropped what they were doing to spend the day at our house acting as our personal movers: packing, lugging boxes & furniture up to 2nd/3rd floors, moving furniture out, and even helping a few older neighbors move some of their things.

We were in a race against time. A mandatory 5pm evacuation was announced for our small town. As time ticked away, the packing got more haphazard- I open boxes now & laugh at the mumbo-jumbo. Some things were literally just carried up by hand without being boxed up! 

Every so often we'd go out to check on the rising waters:

We're on the higher end of our street, and it was creepy watching the water filling it up.

The woods where I sometimes walk the spastic lab going under water.

The drainage grate out front of our house around 4pm on flood day-- the drainage system was so full, the water is beginning to back up into the street... it was time to start our personal evacuation.

Someone took this picture after we'd evacuated. Our street is disappearing, our driveway is gone, and I see just the top of our porch step peeking out. At this point our basement is filling up with water but it hasn't reached the first floor yet.

Some of the aftermath- pictures taken Friday after the waters had begun to recede:

Wet, muddy yuck left on our kitchen floor. The fridge & bottom drawer still had water in them...

 

This is our trap door entrance leading into the basement from our foyer. Remember this is after the water has receded, but the basement water was trapped & had nowhere to go quickly. 

Basement view from the outdoor access...

This is a view of our foyer... you can see the muddy residue left behind from the flood waters. The door on the right leads to the back porch, and the doorway on the left leads to the basement access.

Marshall kept vigil with the pump/hose to make sure it didn't get clogged with all the random stuff floating around 

In the end we will have to repair/replace: furnace, a/c, two hot water heaters, an electric panel & it's breakers, all the ductwork, the outside basement door, fridge, dishwasher, built-in oven, two rooms of padding/carpet, amongst other things. And yet I have been thankful every day realizing it all could've been so much worse.

It's amazing & touching to see how we humans will reach out to each other in times of need. 

It's been comforting to have neighbors checking on us & doing the same for them... again, helping each other in any ways we could. I was overcome with tears when someone from my parent's church stopped by with a cooler packed with prepared foods, a box of toiletries, socks, a blanket, uplifting books, a case of water, and more- I'd never met her. There were people we didn't know who sent us gift cards for Giant & Walmart. 

What a blessing this all was to us! Not only were the gift cards so very practically used when so much extra needed to be bought for our clean-up, they were uplifting to our crumbling spirits.

What I've Celebrated, Sewn & Read This Week

Our week started off with a "bang" when on Monday my younger daughter both celebrated her 15th birthday AND had her first day of high school. 

(I think I caught her mid-blink?)

Some important asides here-- I met my husband when I was 15, and let me tell you, having her this age is kinda blowing my mind! I went through these shocked feelings when my older daughter hit 15, so I'm surprised to feel them so strongly again. 

I mean, really, WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! I look at her & realize how young we were!! NO WONDER OUR PARENTS WERE FREAKING OUT!!!!

Anyway, the other aside here is that my dear daughter has spent the last three years as a homeschooler. So we're severely out of practice with getting up so early in the morning! 

She's holding her own though & is loving school thus far. 

I'm NOT loving the early morning wake-up but do find I rather like being up that early. It just doesn't come naturally to me. I'm amazed at how much I've gotten done & realize it's "only" 10am. 

The side-effects of being up earlier are that I 1) tend to work longer & be on my feet longer, thus my body has actually been in pain a few days after being on my feet for the better part of 13 hours, and 2) since I'm up longer, my body seems to think it needs to eat more (grrrrr).

One day I face-planted on my desk, literally fell asleep in that contorted position & was startled awake when my hubby walked in the front door. 

Alright, change of topics from What I Celebrated to What I've Sewn:

 Show & Tell

A chocolate-themed tote bag with a zipper. This is for the car waits-  I have such difficulty just sitting & waiting. I have to bring something to work on or to read when sequestered in a car & waiting on a child... 

 ... and the zipper ensures that when I go careening around corners, all my stuff doesn't go flying all over the car.

I've been working on this Halloween square table topper for a couple weeks here & there.  And it's quilted with GLOW IN THE DARK thread! How cool is that?? I'm going to list it on etsy & see what happens.

 Here's a back shot, which as is so typical, shows the quilting off a bit better.

A smallish Halloween table runner...

 Again, a back shot shows the quilting.

Finally, I thought I'd share what I've read this week: "Echoes of Lies" by Jo Bannister:

While not the best book I've ever read, I did find it entertaining. The story kept me engaged & wanting to read more.

Brodie is a woman who "finds things" for a living. When the man she "finds" for her client ends up brutalized, she becomes enmeshed in his story. Obligatory feelings lead to a true friendship which stands the tests of threats, violence, & tragedy. 

Now I'm onto "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. This one's been on my to-read list for some time, but being a cheap, avid reader kept me from buying it full price. I've been scouring Bookmooch & Paperback Swap faithfully to no avail. I've waited patiently for Barnes & Nobles to send me a 50% coupon for naught. And I'd even searched at Borders since they're having their going-out-of-business sales, but NO GO. With the movie out, my search became almost frantic. My girls want to go see it. I want to go see it. BUT I'm neurotic about reading the book before seeing the movie, and so I caved & bought the dang thing full price. Ugh, I still haven't recovered from that failure!!

I hope you all have a fantastic, long weekend!