Busy busy busy......

I know, I know.  It's been a while.  But it's been busy around here!  For one thing, the girl child was home for a week for her midterm break.  Which always means much more to do, for some reason.  It also makes about $50 difference per week for the grocery bill -- I guess because it means there are two extra mouths to feed?  (No, the girl child doesn't have two mouths, she has a boyfriend.)  Then the boy child was -- well, I'll save that for later. 

Before that news, ta dah!!!  Paradise Lost is finished!!!   Yay!

I'm going to tease you with little pics first.  :D

And finally, a very bad picture of the whole thing.

And yes, I'm very bad about ironing too.  :D   Anyway, I used 40ct Light Examplar from Lakeside Linens with the called for NPI and Gloriana silks.  Oh, and it's by Plum Street Samplers.  And about those trees, Paulette.    The only tree I enjoyed stitching was the one on the right.  That one was fun.  The others were torture.  lol!  Wellllll, I guess the little one wasn't too bad either.   But don't you just love this design?  I do!  I'm very happy to have it all finished too!  Thanks for such a great piece, Paulette!

So back to the busy busy stuff.   The week that the girl child was home was also the week of Halloween.  Here are the boy child and his friend in their Red Bull can costumes.  Unfortunately it was pouring so they had to wear plastic rain capes.  (The father type managed to cut the boy child's head off.)

It's hard to tell, but they did a really good job.  Too bad it was raining.

Also during the week of the girl child's midterm break, the boy child had his final rehearsals and the concert for the Area All State Orchestra.  You may recall that he has to do this NYSSMA audition every year (Yes, little boy, you have to do it every year till you're a senior.  When you're a senior, it won't matter anymore.).   So he did well enough in his audition to be 4th bass (out of 12 basses) in the Area All State Orchestra in our area of NY state.  I think this is a very hard area to compete in -- some of the best musician students in the state, IMO.  And boy, did it show in the concert!  It was definitely the best concert I've heard in a long time -- of the concerts that the boy child has been in that is.  Excellent!  Amazing!  I really enjoyed it.  The concert culminated in movements 11 and 12 (the Lullabye and Final Hym) of Stravinksy's Firebird Suite.  Had to mention that so you'd know just how good these kids were.  So beautiful!

Now to torture you, you get to see pictures of the Area All State Orchestra with the boy child as the featured musician. 

This is the whole orchestra -- 184 members, I think.

Do you see him there?  With his long hair?  lol!  Can you tell I'm proud?   Anyway -- moving on!

So finally, right at the tail end of the girl child's midterm break, the refrigerator stopped working.  Just stopped.  That was it.  The food rotted, and we had a whole slew of garbage bags of untrustworthy food.  So sad.  Now I'm going to sound like an advertisement, but I was astounded to discover that Sears was very efficient for a change.  I called them to see if they had the size of refrigerator we need (we unfortunately have a very tiny area where the fridge goes, so there's no choice -- no fancy fridge for us, just a teeny tiny one).  I was immediately connected to some lady in Alabama (I think that's where she said she was) who knew exactly what was in stock in the local warehouse from which deliveries would be made to us.  She ran through what was available (not much in that size!) and hooked me up with one to be delivered asap -- and on a Sunday too!  I called on Friday late in the afternoon, almost evening, so I was duly impressed.  Refrigerator bought and delivered without having to step outside the house!  So anyway, I spent the better part of this past week stocking the new fridge up with new food.  Fun fun!   It would be so much more enjoyable if it were one of those fancy smancy refrigerators.  And a fridge that was a whole heck of a lot bigger.  Oh well. 

The boy child and his father are currently out in the rain -- well the boy child is anyway.  He and a bunch of friends are at yet another paintball scenario event, this time somewhere up north.  Me being a worrywart momma, I didn't feel safe having the boy child riding in the car being driven by one of the teenage boys who I don't even know.  So the father type generously volunteered to drive the boy child.  I told you he's a wonderful father type!  So I'm here at home by myself.  Which is why I finally got PL finished.  lol! 

I hope you all have a great weekend -- what's left of it.  Thanks for stopping by.  I love reading your comments!