Grandma's Buttons

I’ve been searching for some new ideas to add to my scrapbooking pages lately and have been looking into things like buttons and charms. This is far from a new concept, but everyone knows I’m always running behind on such things. I’ve bought a few packets of miscellaneous buttons from the craft stores and such – pretty buttons, but lacking in distinctiveness.

I got to thinking about my Grandma’s sewing box the other day, and thought I’d take a look in there. I got her sewing stuff when she passed away a few years ago – I’m not a sewer past rudimentary repairs and patching, but I’m happy to have it and add it to my own meager supplies. Everyone needs a sewing box.

She’d kept a collection of buttons in an old medium-sized margarine tub in her basket. I’d looked through them before but not with any great intent. I got them out again last night and began to sort them. Many were average, unremarkable, run of the mill buttons. Others were gaudy and dated, perhaps once on a coat. A few even looked suspiciously like couch cushion buttons. But some were very pretty. Mother of pearl, bright plastics, tortoiseshell, etc. I set the pretty ones aside to put with my craft things.

As I played with the buttons, I caught a scent – hard to describe but that is unmistakable. Part dust, part facial powder, part faint old lady soap, part a few other things that nothing else smells like but that of items collected over long stretches of time. The smell of years. The smell of my Grandma.

I held the margarine container up to my face and breathed deep. And missed her more than I had in a while.

Odds and Ends of Late

Hello, friends! I hope you've all been well!

I've been busy. Seems like so much has been going on lately ... Nothing too exciting for you the reader, but enough to keep me hopping.

I'm home this morning with Incrediboy. He had a little episode at preschool yesterday, throwing up on the lunch table. Yuck! I don't know what it was all about, as he's seemed fine, before and since. Needless to say, he needs to stay home 24 hours before returning to class after such an event - so we're hanging out till noon today before he returns to school and I return to the office.

At least we got to sleep in a teeny bit. :)

For those who are wondering, we got a new mattress - a "real" mattress. It's a Cali King and fits perfectly into our waterbed frame, so that's nice. And I love it. It's firm and comfortable, and I sleep more deeply on it than I have in a long time. We ordered some high threadcount sheets off of Amazon for dirt cheap too, and they're smooth as silk. Heaven! Hopefully they wont get scratchy and full of pills after a few uses. For now, though, Hub and I are sleeping on a silken cloud. *Sigh*.

Speaking of the office a few minutes ago, I've been handed some new responsibilities at work. I don't mind that in and of itself, but it's something fairly complicated and I got little to no guidance on how to tackle it - it was just simply dumped into my lap by my extremely busy boss with a "here, take over this." I was stressed out for several days trying to blindly train myself - but am getting the hang of it now and am much less frustrated recently.

I actually like this aspect of my job - I get to do many things within the company, and the variety keeps it interesting and not so tedious. So in the end, I am kind of excited about this new challenge. Assuming I don't "FUBAR" it up too badly.

I've been scrapping like mad lately. Many of you know that I make a scrapbook recapping Incrediboy's previous year for each of the Grandmas, as a Mother's Day gift. It's a big project and I'm usually scrambling under the gun to get it done - but thanks to being able to attend more crops* than usual this spring, I'm making great progress this time and may actually get them done with a little time to spare. (*For you non-scrappers, a crop is a day of gathering with fellow scrapbookers in a large room for uninterrupted scrapbooking time and fellowship. Something rare and invaluable especially for mothers of little ones who rarely get more than 2 consecutive minutes of concentration on one activity.)

I don't mind that I got myself into this ongoing Mother's Day project in and of itself ... But after madly trying to get them done in time every year, I tend to have burnout by the time they're done. Hence, I rarely if ever scrapbook my own stuff - which kind of sucks. Maybe this year I'll be able to retain my scrapping groove and work on some of my own pages when I wrap these up. (Fingers crossed!)

My unemployed neighbor has taken a shine to doing a little target practice on his property, much to MBDog's dismay. He's a hunting breed, but does not like loud noises, and the gunfire has been scaring the bejeebers out of him. In the evenings we can cuddle and calm him, but our neighbor's also started banging around during the day while we're at work. Last week the poor baby got so terrified that he tore a hole in our bedroom door looking for a place to hide. I kid you not! There were bloody shards of wood all over the place. Hub went over and had a few words with said neighbor, who agreed to stop shooting his gun off during the day. We've had no further daytime destruction, but MBDog still shakes like a leaf whenever we leave him.

I hate that my baby dog is living with constant terror and apprehension now thanks to our bored neighbor. The rub is, it's totally legal for him to shoot a gun off on his property as long as proper precautions are taken. Country life isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

Despite a lot of complaining in this post, life's been good. I'll continue with the updates at a later time - for now I need to get ready for the latter half of this glorious Friday. Have a wonderful weekend, friends ~ Spring is on the way, and summer's not far behind! Yummm, I can practically taste it!

July 30, 1967 - April 2, 1988

Twenty years ago on this day, my best friend died trying to help someone get out of a burning home.

Not a day has gone by that I haven't missed him.

Twenty. Years. My Gawd.

Though you, my dear reader, didn't know him ~ please remember my friend today. He's worth remembering.

See you on the other side, buddy.

Curse the Universe!

April Fool’s came early at my house this year.

Last night I had a splitting headache. I was about to go to bed early when the Hub came out from the bedroom and said, “The waterbed’s got a hole in it.”

The contents of my ribcage dropped into my legs.

I followed him into the bedroom and sure enough, the sides of our Cali-King waterbed were full of water, and you could hear an audible patter of water droplets hitting the burber carpet at the upper left corner of the bed, where apparently the liner fell a little bit short.

Crap.

We removed the covers and toweled the top of the mattress off. We could see no leak on the top anywhere. We checked the sides as best as we could and still found nothing obvious. Despite the lack of an apparent exit wound, we knew we needed to drain before things got out of hand.

In came the garden hose, and down to the sump pump it went. Out came the air mattress, followed by the skull-shattering air compressor since the little travel air pump had died somewhere along the way.

MBDog was freaking out from all the commotion, and naturally Incrediboy was NOT going to sleep with all the activity in the house. Ugh.

Three hours later the waterbed mattress is for all intents and purposes drained, except for the several gallons trapped in the baffling. We still have not found where the leak is. WTF! We pulled it out and placed the air mattress in the bed frame, securing it with cushions from the couch on one side.

The air mattress is comfortable, but we’re not used to it. I slept deeply when I did sleep, but woke frequently. And I never did get rid of my headache – if you can imagine that! Needless to say, we’re all a bit grumpy today. If anyone tries to get cute with any further pranks today, he may pay with his life.

And please, don’t tell me, “See, this is why I’d never have a waterbed”. This too will get you killed.