Odd N Ends

 So my work required me to remain self quarantined for 10 days due to close contact with some one with Covid. When I got back to work, I had to send our health dept folks a photo of my temperature check as I entered the building. Green Check is Good!

Anyways, I had some time to kill, so I organized my ratty old tool box. The winter was tough on it too. It had been tipped over, and all the junk just tossed back in. Not good at all. 

There, much better-top try all sorted.

One drawer for screwdrivers-I think I have enough......

And those pesky stray sockets-metric and Standard, all sorted out now. I have a set with the sizes sorted out, these are just Odds N Ends.

My beautiful gardener came and did the 1st mowing of the year. 

 She's so good!

We also had a small family get together while my younger sister was visiting for Brother's funeral. Bean was messing with me...

They said, they took a picture of me taking a picture.....I sure love these two! 

And these two too

And these two too! We had a nice lunch at Julie's and I sure hope we get to visit a little more often soon!

And then yesterday I was alerted that the contractor that's going top build the new deck was going to bring cement ! I had to cobble together a fence to keep the dogs out of that part of the yard. I just gathered up all the odds n ends I could find to keep them in the back part of the yard. More to come about that cement!

Sad Day

  

This is a picture from about 3 years ago, My dad and me and my brother. Mom was in the hospital after a bad fall and my Brother came to see her. He tended to pop up in the most unlikely of times.

He was our big brother. He also died today from Covid. I went last night and stayed at the hospital with him. He was not responding to anything. I held his hand and I talked to him. The family all came and everyone spent some time with him. His daughter, Erin, is making the arrangements for his care. 

This is what a ventilator looks like. This machine breathed for my brother for 2 days.

I wish I didn't know what a ventilator looks like or how it works. 

When I left the hospital this morning, Faron's vitals were not great, but not awful. Unfortunately, his blood test results showed heavy damage to his vital organs due to lack of blood flow and lack of oxygen. He had very kind and caring nurses throughout the night and they took the time to make sure we all understood what was going on. 

I only wish that my brother would have gotten the vaccine. It might have made the difference. 

If you are reading this, please get vaccinated, wear your mask, wash your hands and social distance when ever possible. 

You will be so missed. We weren't always close, but you always sent me a message when I least expected it. I always knew you were in the loop, even if there was no visible activity. I guess that's still true. I pray that you are breathing easy in your heavenly home. 

Big News and Birthdays

Yup...lookie here-I got the first of 2 vaccines today! YAY! One more in April. So glad to get this done!

On Saturday, this postcard kept taunting me....20%off...go over to Amana....

SO of course I caved and drove over to Heritage Designs.

THis is just the nicest store-It's not the biggest, but they do have a nice selection...and on sale!

I picked up a few of the Iowa prints, I've been thinking about the Iowa Hawkeyes quilt for awhile now. Than I saw a pattern on MSQC Youtube that I think will work out really well.

I already had quite a few black and golds stashed for this project.

And the first few blocks look pretty good! 

Then I came home and made a little birthday cake. It's a Mt Dew Cake.

People make soda cakes all the time, and you could use any flavor beverage. It came out pretty good. It looked pretty on the glass platter.

We also had the German chocolate cake to celebrate Dannie & Jaymie's birthdays.

It's been quite awhile since we have been able to get together. 

Everyone except me & Ben oh and Dannie's latest BF Shannon, had their vaccines, and the kids are always a wild card no matter what. 

Jaymie turned 13! 

We had breakfast for supper, pancakes and waffles with sausage & bacon.

It was really good. 

And with 7 dogs playing together it was like a scene out of Go Dog Go! Happy Birthday indeed!