Sturgeon!!

This also has nothing to do with quilting, or fabric, or sewing, but it is the highlight of my week!

SO I'm working on this huge project that is super important for helping sturgeon rebound in the area between Lake Huron and Lake Erie in the Great Lakes.  {Here is some information about it, and a pretty AWESOME video of sturgeon on the reef still in progress!}.  We were out yesterday and today doing the St Clair River Egg mat survey (where we go look for spawning activity) and found these little beauties on the reef that is being built!

Sturgeon eggs!

Difficult to see, but a sturgeon is hatching!!

So fantastic that I just had to share.  It totally makes me feel like I am making a difference in my job by improving one of our most important resources!

One more sad post and then I'm done. Probably.

My grandma passed away early Saturday morning.  I got the phone call at 2am and we weren't really expecting it so fast.  We are in the process of setting arrangements and collecting her things which has been horrible.  She has a boyfriend she was living with and paying $600 a month to him for rent and now he is stealing her jewelry and any valuables she had.  Yesterday his daughter in law had enough in her to stand right in front of me wearing my grandma's necklace that she wore everyday of my life.  I am just so upset about it.  The happier side is that I was able to go through my parents pictures and found some really neat ones.


My grandma and my {real/biological} grandpa {passed away before I was born} on their wedding day

Grandma and Grandpa

 

Grandma and her son (my dad) before I was born/when I was very young

My mom back in the day at the Natural Resource Conservation Service as a waterways engineer {This is my absolute favorite photo of her and I'm planning on stealing it shortly to hang in my house}

My dad in his tackle shop he used to have

My mom feeding their racing pigeons way back when


I never got to meet my dad's dad and was pretty excited to see those photos.  It brought back some good memories for my dad that he talked about with me and I was happy that it brought a little light to the situation.  I attempted to bring out my sewing yesterday morning (since it lives with me in my car right now) but I was foiled in my attempts by ever present tasks to do!  I get to go home tonight to my DH and can hardly wait!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

28 Hours

You know how people claim they get "second winds" after being awake for a long time?  Well I've been up for 28 hours now and it took 4 cups of coffee to get one!  Plus the whole sun rising thing kind of helped out too.  I worked a night shift last night looking for larval {baby} sturgeon and am headed back up to Grand Rapids.  We are not expecting my Grandma to make it too much longer and I just wanted to say thank you for all of your kind words, I appreciate them even if I have not had a chance to respond.  Yesterday when I was packing I would head to a room, forget what I was doing, and then go look for something else.  I'm sure none of my clothes match and I'm probably missing something important like underpants.  But those are overrated anyways.  Just kidding...  Hopefully there will be something fascinating soon! 

{PS, Sara at Sew Sweetness made this fantastic bag out of her NY Beauty blocks.  What a fantastic idea!!}

The universe knows.

Get a load of this:

I think that the universe knows Sliced Apples begins this week.  What it should say is "A good time to start something new and fall terribly behind on it."  Perhaps it has bigger expectations of my free time than laundry and cleaning!

I traveled across the state again this weekend to visit my grandma (where I got the above fortune at dinner).  She is still in ICU and had to abruptly undergo a third surgery last night to attempt to clean out an abscess in her throat.  She went in at 10pm and came out at 11:15pm but we didn't have an opportunity to see her wake up since we were all dragging and still had to drive back to Lansing.  We are hoping this is the last time she will have to have this kind of surgery but you never know.  The infectious disease team said that the blood infection is under control but that there are still effects in her organs.  The newest deveopments are an infection in her heart valve and the chance that she may have had a stroke.  It's really hard to see my dad (her son) in this.  He is stubborn and tough so it kills my sister and I to see him go through this- it's like watching a rock crack.  I can only hope it gets better quickly!

Saturday was also my birthday!  I headed east to home Sauurday afternoon and made plans for myself to stop at Creative Quilt Kits in Brighton!  I've wanted to go for a while but every time I pass through ends up being after (or before) hours.  I even managed to sneak my stash in without DH seeing :)

He also got the hint and got me the ice cream cake I've been asking for.  I forgot to take one before I began to devour it, but you get the picture!

It's so good I nearly cried

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Life just won't stop!

I can never seem to find enough time to sew these days!  This weekend I had big plans to visit my family back in Lansing {and visit a few quilt shops} on Saturday but just as we got there we got a call that my grandma was in the ER at a hospital in Reed City and was going to be transferred to Grand Rapids.  We took off Saturday from Lansing and found our way to GR to visit.  She was unresponsive but we stayed late and eventually ventured off to find a hotel.  We called 6 hotels and managed to find the ONLY room left in 20 miles!  I was so thankful when we checked in at 11 that I was beside myself.  Richard had said why we were in town and in the morning we found a card with free breakfast for us slid under the door with our bill.  I was just so astonished and thankful to those ladies at the front desk.  When we left they weren't there but I fully plan on writing them a thank you.

Sunday we went back to the hospital to get the update on her condition.  We were there for a couple of hours before I ever found out that she had woken up a few times and was responding!  She was shortly taken in for surgery to clear an abyss on her throat and to relieve pressure on her spinal column both due to infection that has spread to her blood.  The surgeons said that she made it through wonderfully so we are crossing our fingers for recovery and we are all expecting the best.  I will more than likely be back in Grand Rapids this weekend so there may not be any progress on my projects.  Hopefully sliced apples doesn't start this week- I would hate to be behind in the first week!

Sliced Apples Fabric!!!

I went to my quilting group last night and brought home my Little Apples fabric {the charm packs at least} for the Sliced Apples QAL!  I'm already excited to start a new project, and of course my wonderful friend Pam is putting it on with her friend Cori, so what more incentive do I need?  I'm so happy that I could be one of the first into join in and support them!

I was really going back and fourth over what to do with the fabric choice because I really hate the green color.  Don't get me wrong- it has some GREAT prints in it, but the color of the green itself irks me.  I love me some nice rich green, not silly olive!  Anyways!  I thought about just buying yardage of the prints I really love in the line (like the little turtles I simply adore), but in the end I went with the original design.  I saw the quilt top in person and it really looks fantastic the way it is, with olive and all!

Don't you just love them?

I may just buy myself some of these little guys to have all to myself :)

 I have no real need for this quilt since I have a couple others in progress and have no little ones in the family yet to give it to so I think I may donate it if nothing else comes up {ie no one I know gets pregnant!}.  I'm going to have to do some research into it but I think there are some hospitals that will accept quilts and distribute them...?  If you have a charity you like, let me know!  I don't mind shipping.

I took today off to spend some time with the hubby since Monday was our 1st anniversary and I haven't had much of a chance to see him this week.  We went out to dinner after work and he brought me these lovelies :)

Unfortunately he got a big project at work and then spent Tuesday and Wednesday living there.  Literally.  He didn't come home until 1AM last night and he left for work at 6AM that morning.  So now that I am enjoying his presence today I decided that we needed to make progress on the yard!  I went out to measure our garden beds for new landscaping bricks and just about melted into a puddle.  I've retreated and am rethinking loading those 160 landscaping bricks into our truck at Lowe's and hauling them back.  Definitely an another day kind of project so instead I think I may sew some more MSU quilt for a little while!

I hope you all are having a lovely week!