How Insane Am I?

So school starts in a couple of weeks. I had the stupidest dream last night. I never even had these type of dreams when I was the student. Not to worry it wasn't the naked in front of the class dream, but close.
OK here we go into dreamland ~~~~~~~  I'm apparently the student, it's the first day of school and I'm called to the office and told that I forgot to take a test last year and have to take it before I can start my new classes. I'm struggling through this idiotic test and am stuck on the question that's asking who the most important historical figures are from 1782-1924 in AUSTRALIA?????????  This isn't even a history test it's a photography test!! (You'd think I'd figure out this is a dream) Then I'm rudely told that it has just been discovered that I haven't taken ANY finals ever and I have to take them ALL right now!...SLAM!!~~~~~~~ 
Whew so glad my husband slammed the front door when he left this morning .What the heck? I'm having school anxiety dreams? Grace will love this when I tell her. How insane have I become?

Nest Inchie

This Monday's Inchie challenge was "Nest", I had the hardest time with this one. I tried to make a nest in a tree, an inch is just too small for some things . I tried drawing a nest, it looked like a thumbprint. While I was digging through my box of collage things I discovered a skein of this yarn, it's the type you make those frilly scarves with. I love the colors and fibers. Quite a bright nest, my cat would find this in no time :) Happy Monday!!

Book Inchie

It's not Monday , but I did make an inchie, just needed batteries for my camera. The topic was book, I know I have a wonderful book charm that I put aside just for this week's inchie, apparently I put it way far aside, because I have no idea where I put it. So I took the make a book challenge and did just that. Now I need to write in it . Happy Tuesday!!



Shorter summers?

When I was a kid it seemed that summer vacation went by way too fast. There was never enough time to ride bikes, play in sprinklers, build forts. But it sure feels like the summer break is much shorter these days.
Every year school seems to start earlier and earlier. We never went back to school before September. I just realized that Grace goes back in about three weeks. It just doesn't seem right to go back to school the hottest month of the year.
Wonder when this strange schedule began. I'm sure it has to do with fitting in all the required days, and I'm sure there are plenty of moms that have had enough and are ready to send the kids back to school today.
Guess as a mom that goes along with her kid, I feel just like the kids when I say "I don't want to go back yet!" Am I getting any sympathy? Anyone??

New Pet

I have to introduce our new family member, Sora. He's a little orange tabby that we adopted today, from our local animal shelter.
One of our cats disappeared a while back and just one cat (and a dog) wasn't enough. Grace has been nagging for an orange kitty for a couple of years. I guess she finally wore us down.
 I must say that we've had many different animals. Our house has been home to birds, fish, box turtles,rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, bugs and the usual cats and dogs. I think they make everyone feel better.
 I know in the hospital Grace always looked foreword to Tuesday when Sara the therapy dog would come to see her. Sara is a golden retriever that, along with her human, volunteered to visit people in the hospital to help them feel better. Sara would crawl up in bed with Grace and lay with her for the longest time. We saw her human after Grace left the hospital and she told us that when Grace left Sara stood outside her ICU room and whined for her. Sara was also available on another occasion when Grace had to return for a small surgery. She went all the way to the operating room with Grace, it was so nice to have Sara help keep Grace calm.
I just love how animals seem to know they need to be gentle with Grace. She definitely picked the perfect little kitty, here he is about an hour after we brought him home, laying on her lap watching TV with her. When the dog came in and scared the you know what out of the poor little cat, he made his way back over to Grace's lap. I think they've already bonded.



Love and Sweet Inchies

You know how you have that weird feeling that you've forgotten something? Well, I spent this last week with that feeling. Thankfully I hadn't forgotten to unplug the iron, or left a loved one somewhere. I'd forgotten my inchie!!!!!!! Oh the shame........good thing about Inchie Monday's you can always catch up again:)

This week's challenge was LOVE......now I know love can go in so many directions. I am now addicted to Pinterest ( thank you Aileen my enabler) and keep finding button crafts everywhere on that site. so of course this week I chose buttons for my inchie. I just finished it and, yes, the glue is still wet as you can see :)

Last week I must have been too preoccupied with the July 4th holiday, the challenge was "sweet".........I made a sweetheart for my inchie. Here ya go.



Giving Back

Before I get into the "Giving Back" I have to explain the why.  Both Children's hospitals that our daughter has been to have a very important department called the child-life department. They are the people that keep your children and many times the parents from going crazy.
When Grace is in the hospital she's not normally "sick" acting regardless of how critically ill she has been. The child-life department staff do many things for the patients. They run a playroom and for kids like Grace that weren't allowed to leave their room, they bring the play portion right to their beds. Everything from movies, video games, board games, craft projects, Mother's day gifts to make, you name it they brought it. They also had a music lady that would bring her guitar or keyboard and sing for the patients, Grace was there so long that the music lady actually taught her a couple songs on the keyboard.
Not only do they provide the fun, they also assist in many other not so fun aspects of a hospital stay. They are available to accompany your children into surgery rooms to help them stay as calm as they can until they go under the anesthesia. They're there when they return to their rooms, they even explain what they'll see in the surgery room and what the procedures will entail. In our case Diana ( our go to gal ) even told Grace she was going to have to have a tracheotomy, as we were devastated and well, too chicken to break the news to Grace. I am sure there are many other jobs for the child-life department, many things that we have no clue about.
OK , back to the giving back portion of this long winded posting. My sister thought I should share how Grace gave back. When she was in 8th grade she was in the gifted program and needed a project to work on. After thinking for many days she decided she wanted to help the hospital, so naturally we thought of the child-life department. About six months before this she had spent a few days back at the hospital for a very difficult back surgery. Once again child-life was there to help. After making a couple of calls and having a meeting with them at the hospital, it was determined that a book to help siblings would be helpful for their department.
Many emails, pictures and rough drafts later, Grace had compiled a book for the staff to use to explain the rules for entering an ICU unit and what all those strange noises and machines were for. 
It turned out to be a great experience for Grace. Gave her the opportunity to come full circle and perhaps help someone else blessed enough to stay at this particular hospital and experience all the wonderful staff that had helped her so much.  

Hospitality :)

We have a pretty small circle of friends and don't get too many invites to others' houses. No I'm not complaining or fishing for an invite, just making a point.
For the July 4th holiday we were invited to some new friends' house for  BBQ/fireworks. Their home is gorgeous!! As much as we appreciated their hospitality I think we most appreciated their lack of concern for their walls. Sound crazy? Well, it isn't, as we went on a tour of their home Grace had to back out of a room to turn around and as I was telling her she was too close to a door frame, the homeowner said it was no big deal that she couldn't hurt their house. That made us all so much more comfortable than they could ever know.
We have been to other homes where the host was so worried about his walls, we couldn't relax and Grace felt as if she had to just sit in one spot. She's an excellent driver and seldom ruins walls with her wheels, but it's always a possibility.
It's not something most people would think of, but it made us feel very welcome. Thanks so much!!! :)