A fire, A retreat, A storm, Some quilting

So much has happened recently and I have not written about it.  I don't know if I just didn't know how to put it into words, or if I was too busy, or if I was feeling guilty, or if I was trying to pretend it wasn't happening.  Or quite possibly all of the above.

My nephew's house caught on fire and he was burned over 26% of his body.  He was rushed to the Emergency Room and eventually transferred to a larger more specialize hospital out of town.  He was burned on his face and neck and arms and apparently was singed on the inside as well.  He currently has a trach and is getting skin grafts on his face and neck and maybe his arms.  It hurts me to think of poor Daniel lying there in what has to be awful pain.  The hospital has kept him sedated, so hopefully he is unaware of most of what is going on.

I had a wonderful retreat with 6 other ladies.  It was something else of a time. We had originally grown to 12 possible attendees and then as the time grew near, people kept dropping out right and left for one reason or another.  I was beginning to wonder if it would happen at all. But, as usual, things work out like they are supposed to.  Those of us who did attend, had a wonderful time and got to know each other even better.  We did lots of visiting, lots of sewing, and lots of eating.  And in between, we watched to see the news of where Isaac was going.

I didn't get much done.  I arrived with 2 quilts to put binding on.  After a brief time at the sewing machine, I spent Friday afternoon and evening in the recliner in the living room doing binding on a lap quilt and watching movies.  On Saturday, imagine a repeat of Friday, only with a much larger quilt - queen size - and another movie or two or three.  Luckily Ginger was there to keep me company working on her crochet afghan.  Sunday, I was all finished with my binding and was therefore forced to actually cut fabric and use my sewing machine to produce "something".

And the food!  We had a full blown salad bar on Friday at lunch provided by Gaye.  Mmmmmm!  Then we had Rotel Pork Tenderloin, field peas and scalloped potatoes by me.  Tai made the most delicious breakfast complete with fruit, coconut cinnamon rolls and butterscotch banana scones.  I just can't tell you!  After "third breakfast"  we were almost too full.  We didn't even have lunch until about 1:00 with some wonderful chicken salad from Maxwell's.  I wasn't too sure about the chunks of celery in there.  I don't mind the taste of celery, but am not really thrilled about crunching into it.  The taste was wonderful, so much so that I didn't even notice the crunchy celery.  Our dinner cook was one of those who did not come, so we had a "family meeting".  The choice was to do leftovers or to go out and get something.  We voted on leftovers.  Sunday morning, one of our other non-attendees brought us breakfast of bagels and fruit and two type of creamed cheese.  What a treat!  Lunch was leftovers again.  I know that sounds boring, but it really was not. We loved every minute of it. And at the end of the day, we still had to distribute the leftovers for different people to take home.  Sometimes I wonder if we go for the sewing or for the food......

Upon returning home, it was becoming obvious that Isaac was going to make an unwelcomed visit to us here in Baton Rouge, so DBF and I began making preparations for his arrival.  Where we live, we have a water well with an electric pump, so if the power goes out, we lose water as well.  So.....several loads of laundry were done.  Ice was bagged and put into the freezer. The bathtubs were filled with water (to flush with).  All the "missiles" were put away from our yard.  The front porch furniture was turned upside down and all the wind chimes across the front and back of the house were taken down.  We filled our vehicles with gas and got gas containers to run the generator.  He cleaned the carburetor on the generator so we would know that it would work.  We checked on the yards of the neighbors who were stuck out of town and secure some of their items.  We each checked on our parents to be sure they didn't need anything. We took the staples like mayo, jelly, drinks, etc from the fridge and put in an ice chest so if the power went out, we would not have to open the refrigerator. We ran the extension cord from outside the back door around the house and into the utility room through the dryer vent so that we could plug it into the 220 outlet from the dryer.  When the power went out, we were able to run some things in the house, as long as we didn't overload the generator.

We were off work for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Tuesday, we saw a few wind gusts, but really not much else.  We continue our preparations.  Wednesday, we saw lots of wind and some very light rain. I quilted 2 quilts that day.  Late Wednesday night and late Thursday, we had some real blowing rain. There were a few medium sized limbs in the front yard, but mostly small branches and leaves everywhere - leaves and leaves and leaves.  Wet leaves plastered to everything!  Then Friday, I had to return to work. Friday evening, I quilted one more quilt and loaded another.

Life is returning to normal.  Today we are cleaning out the ice chests to put away, readying the generator to put away until next time, picking up limbs, etc., etc.

This afternoon, I'll be quilting again.  Have way too big of a pile waiting......