My Mom and the Cubs

My mother was a big baseball fan.  She loved everything from Tee Ball and Little League to pickup games in the park to games played by the over-seventy crowd.

She played a little at family picnics or with my brothers in the back yard once in a while.  In her 50's she took up golf and her coach told her she had a 'softball swing'. 

Well, yeah!

And she loved the Cubs. She called them her Cubbies.

Before retiring to Arkansas in the mid 1990's, she lived in the Peoria area, so rooting for the Cubs was kind of natural.  I live in Wisconsin and back then the Milwaukee Brewers were in the American League, and the Cubs were in the National League, so they never played each other.

In fact, at that time the Brewers played the Chicago White Sox.  Lots of Sox fans made the 90 mile trip to Milwaukee, and those games could and often did get rowdy!  So it was kind of a relief to have her be a Cubs fan instead.  Cubs fans were nicer, they had to be since my mom was one of them!

So maybe because they were perennial underdogs, maybe for some other reason, my mom was a Cubs fan.  Sadly, she went to the Great Stadium in the Sky in 1998, so she missed the Brewers moving over to the National League, and all the Brewers-Cubs games that have happened since then.  And we never went to a game together.  I went to Brewer games with my daughter instead.

But I am so sure that Mom was watching last night... as I was sitting on my sofa watching that 10th inning I could almost feel her sitting there next to me.

Here's a link you might enjoy -- especially the headline:  Go Cubbies!

It ain't over til it's over...

Presents -- November Style

I love getting packages in the mail or from UPS.  Yes, "Brown" can be my favorite color!  One day last week the UPS man was parked in front of my house when I got home, and I met him in the driveway.  He handed me a package from somewhere and said "I hope it's something nice".  It was!  I had ordered a stamp and punch set from Stampin' Up.

They had this cute stamp set in their holiday catalog, and a punch that makes the Gingerbread Man shape and the little bits and pieces.  Miss A has already made all of her Christmas Cards using this set.  I borrowed this picture from their web site.

I'm still in the planning stages of my holiday cards... heh heh... usually I grab a box from the drug store as I'm dashing around in December.  I'm not sure I even sent any last year!

UPS stopped again yesterday.  I was not home, but here's what came to live at my house anyway:

It's a package full of loveliness from Connecting Threads clearance section.  The first six fabrics are one yard cuts of prints I decided I could not live without.  Then there are three two-yard cuts of ladybug fabrics, with yellow, blue and green backgrounds (the green is kind of hiding), and the final cut is a 108" print that will make a couple of fun backings.  I could not resist because the prices were so low!  There is nothing here that was more than $7 a yard, and some was considerably less.

DH had gone to Menard's and picked up some air fresheners for me.  I sew in the basement, and even with the dehumidifier running, sometimes it smells kind of -- 'basement-y'.  There's no other word for it!  So these just freshen up the scent, and I like the 'clean linen' variety.  One jar will last about a month, so I'm set for a while.  I think he was trying to avoid another shopping trip soon because that's only half my new supply.

 

This is not a present but rather a gratuitous collage of some of the quilts our church group has made.  A few internet-savvy folks are updating the web site, and asked the quilters if we had a photo to put with our contact information and mission statement.  I have this app on my phone that makes collages.  Neat, huh?



And that's what's going on where I live!  Hope your day was fun.

Sew on...

Confirmation

This past weekend went by like a freight train on steroids.

The oldest grand, Miss E, made her confirmation on Sunday.  Beginning on Friday it was go-go-go to get everything done on time.

Because the day was Reformation Sunday, the confirmands had red stoles to decorate with symbols of their lives and their faith journeys, and they could do anything they wanted to do.  So Miss E wanted her name and her bible verse -- chapter and verse number -- spelled out on either side, and symbols of baptism, communion, etc.

We paged through the gazillion embroidery designs we have and found several that were appropriate and sat down Friday night to get them applied.

 
Jeremiah 29:11New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.


Symbols of baptism, communion and the holy spirit.



She added an atom and a double helix because she loves science and math, and hopes to be some type of engineer or scientist some day.  She's an excellent student, smart and diligent, always has her homework done and gets wonderful grades. -- I'm allowed to brag, she's my grand!

Combat wound -- me, not Miss E!!

See the horrible machine -- the screw on the needle is a blur and if it hits your finger it HURTS like crazy!!

Note to self:  stop the needle before clipping the threads... I got my thumb scraped by the screw on the right side of the needle shaft and bled ALL OVER the place including on my Gloria Vanderbilt jeans!

Lucky for me I did NOT bleed on anything important.  Like the stole.

With her proud mom.

Congratulations Miss E, Gram is very proud!

Sew on...