Thursday, Sissie has me on a dead run

 

I am tired.  The kids are due in any moment.  Took a long walk with neighbor this morning. Slept like crap last night. Starting to get a cold. Low grade fever yesterday. I have the chills now. Bed sounds so nice.

Had three bridal fittings yesterday. It was a long exhausting day, and I did not feel my best. Also finished a bridal dress.

I have three more bridal dresses to get done, and one is started. 

The missionaries came and moved a huge cabinet in the garage for me.  I was going to have it torn down and then they realized it was just screwed into the wall.  So, we moved it to a better location and decided to keep it. 

Sissie has been out in the garage cleaning and rearranging, and it is a horrid job.  I need to help her but have been stuck in the shop. If I can get these dresses done, I can get out and help.  

I have two more bridal fittings today. It just never ends. 

But I have taken in enough money to pay my taxes for the rest of the year. Drum Roll please!!!!!!!! I will try and do that tomorrow.

You know that foggy in the head feeling you get when a cold is coming on? That is how I feel.  I am sitting here in a jacket typing because I am so cold. 

I have never seen so many wedding dresses come in for September, it is crazy.

I stocked up on flour and sugar for my buckets in the garage.  I should have enough to get through Christmas baking. Even though I am not cooking or baking like I used to, I don't like running really low on staples.

I am trying to decide if I will finish this wedding dress or go curl up with a warm blanket.

Kim

Tuesday, Back from the beach.

 Sig and I at lunch on the coast.  We had fun, I cooked a lot and we beached a lot, and I took long naps with Kelsa.  I have to say riding in the back seat between two kids for 8 hours is quite a challenge, but I managed it like a true Grandma.

We stayed at a beautiful beach house.  It had a huge fully stocked kitchen (not food).  I cooked big breakfasts, and a few dinners. I just thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Now I am home and back with the house Nazi. (Sissie) I have to say I am caught up in the shop but still very, very busy.  September brides are climbing out of the woodwork. September will be a very busy month. 

Sissie has me saving for my December taxes and I am almost 1/2 way there.  Should be ready to pay in full by next week.  Then all the money that comes into the shop is gravy.  I can either put it on the house or save it for travel. I want to go see Slug really bad, and I also want to go and disturb Sam's peace of mind.  Like she really has any right now.  I know I don't, and we can't be that much alike.

I have saved $465.00 in 5's for my trip with my best buddy to Hawaii next year. Still saving all my change, but it will not be as plentiful, as Mcd's raised the price of a diet coke, and I am not fulfilling my needs as regularly as I did.  There by not saving as much change. Don't worry in the end I will be financially ahead. 

Nate just got called in with a shift change, so the kids just arrived. Sissie has my work all laid out for the day.  OR my quota I should say.  She is a slave driver.

Grandma bought hats. I thought these were appropriate. Schmills is into octopi, and Kelsa loves the baby shark song.  I think I sang it about 1200 times will driving to and from the coast.

I am still reeling from Joel's death.  I keep thinking it will get easier and then bang it is steamrolling me. I want the old Kim back and I can't find her but will continue looking.  I am sure she will be much changed.

I do have to say that blogging is painful, I don't know what to say.  I don't want to constantly whine.  No one likes a Debbie downer. I just have to reinvent myself and the blog. In the meantime, please tolerate me.

 Well, I had better get to work or I will be in trouble.

I think I can hear her footsteps. Kind of sounds like the shark music from Jaws.

Kim

Monday, Sissie is a tyrant!

 Sissie is keeping me going full speed ahead and she is such a blessing (not).  She told me I had to say nice things about her. She has helped me get caught up on wedding dresses, and today it is the piles.  So many piles.

She is just a little work bunny. Things that have needed to be done for months are getting done. I am a hard worker, but she puts me to shame.

Lil sis came over and colored my roots today.  They had not been done in 6 months.  I have just been touching up the roots. She also cut a few inches off the ends.  Hair is so long.

I forgot to turn the water off the garden a few nights ago and remembered at about midnight.  So, I slithered off the deck on the side to avoid walking around on the grass in the dark, getting off the 3-foot side was easy getting back up not so much.  I could not lift my body weight with my left leg at that angle, and I hit my head on the fencing above and then scraped the crap out of my right shin and lost my shoe in the dark.  Landed on that shin hard and it swelled up and bled.  I did a Sluggy but she is the queen of shin injuries. The next day it was just scabby.  My left leg was very sore as I must have strained something.  Kay found my shoe the next day next to the deck.  She gets up earlier than me and was wondering, what the hell? But I was trying to avoid snakes in the dark.

I am going out to lunch today with one of my old dance students that is in town.  That should be fun and then home to sew under Kay the tyrant.

We really want to get to the garage and do a thorough cleaning and gutting, but I need to be caught up in the shop first. 

Leaving Wednesday evening to go with Signe' and family to the Oregon coast for a few days.  I am going as the chief sitter and bottle washer and I will love every minute of it. Kay will watch the dog and do the watering.

I love having my Sissy here, and so appreciate my brother-in-law for not having a fit about her coming again and being gone for so long. 

Picking green beans and small squash from garden.  So good. Still fighting with garden bugs, but I will persevere. 

Kim

Tuesday, I need calm

 

Went out last night just before dusk to water all the flowerpots and came upon a rattlesnake right by my back deck steps.  Scared me to death!  I screamed threw the hose in the air and ran in the house.  I still had watering to do, so ran to neighbors and got him to come over with a shovel and kill it.  Not very large about 1 inch in diameter and 18 inch long.  This picture is not a picture of my snake.  Anyway, it is dead and thrown out into the pasture.  I was so keyed up I did not sleep until after 3 p.m. 

I always do a perimeter search before I let my grandkids off the porch, and they are not allowed in the bottom of the lot where the tall grass is.  I will have Nate do a snake fence walk and see where the hole is that this rascal got through and fix it before the kids are allowed back in the yard.

Any way I slept very late and the missionaries woke me with sewing to do,  ( shirts to shorten the sleeves as the 103 temps here are just too hot for long sleeves.) Finally got them and a bride taken care of but was needed at an elderly woman's house to help her with her phone problems. My best buddy was already there when I arrived late and what a mess.

I had taken rubber gloves and an apron with me and then did not put on gloves and got bit by some spider.  Dumb me.  My buddy found the phone and low and behold it worked so that crisis was averted.  Then we proceeded to try and clean a little.  This poor sister is somewhat of a hoarder.  I don't think she always was; it is just as she has aged, and her memory is slipping she thinks she needs everything. We stayed for about 1.5 hours and cleaned just around her chair.  Two large bags of trash and magazines, old phone books etc.  Made sure to take it home so she could not go through it and put everything back.  I had an asthma attack while there due to dust. Next time will take inhaler. 

So we made a plan to return once a week for a couple of hours and try to clean small sections at a time.  It is all we can do.  But in the meantime, I had a bridal pick up at noon that I was late for that as I got stuck in some construction hold up.  Luckily daughter had stopped by house and told people to wait for me.

I now have a terrible headache.  I have taken something for it.  I have the wedding dress from hell to get ready for a fitting tomorrow.  Sissie is due in at noon tomorrow.  The house is a wreck, and she is going to kill me.  But I don't care as I am so excited, she is coming.

Sissie sent Lil sis and I a package and said we could not open it until she gets here.  But Lil sis is so horrible at waiting.  I have had to fight her off for a few weeks now.  Yesterday she was here and wanted some scissors and I told her no as I knew she would go open the package, This is what I found.

Trying to use her teeth. 

 A close up of her obnoxious self.

Then I see this... Trying to sneak out the door.  She is impossible.

Anyway, I need to go sew or rest my head. Between, snakes, sisters, spiders, missionaries, I just need calm.

Kim

Monday, Tired

 

Had the kids Friday, Sat, Sunday and I am beat. Kelsa keeps you constantly hopping. I need a week to recover, and I don't have time to relax right now.

Had an early morning eye appointment with specialist and moved to new drops this one without steroids.  Another appt. in 6 weeks.

Sissie comes in two days and I am not going to worry about the house, she can deal with it when she gets here.

Have three more wedding dresses to get out or at least started before next week.  Actually, I want them done by next Monday and out of the house. I just want some time getting projects done around here with my Sissie.

Grandma and Schmills.  Such a nice 4th this year.

I am very sleepy, but I need to get started on altering a wedding dress from hell and starting another.

Yikes.

Kim

Friday I am here

 My eldest just after she put a serial pedophile away for life.  She deserves to be happy and so do we. That afternoon she drove 150 miles to buy a new car.  She hasn't had a new car for 16 years, so she was due.  Look at the files on that guy... amazing and sickening at the same time.

I have been quite depressed but also busy.  I am going with my middle daughter and her family for a few days to the Oregon coast so I wanted to really get all July dresses and the first week of August dresses out.  I still have three more to go and two of them are very hard.

I hemmed 5 bridesmaid dresses yesterday and ripped one of the hard wedding dresses. 

Had bridezilla yesterday and still have no idea what she had in mind.  She came in two weeks ago with a short notice dress.  All it needed ws the shoulder straps lifted and a hem in front and bustling hooks.

She came to pick it up and took so long trying it on. She asked what the button at the bottom of her zipper was for and I said it is your bustling button.  Then I started to show her the looping I had put in for the bustle.  She asked why that was needed and I said so you are not dragging this long train all over during your reception.  She retorted that she was not having a reception, just her husband and her, so she did not need it.  I am thinking then why did you stand there for 15 minutes while I measured and put the bustling pins in?  No problem I will take the button off and then I will remove the loops.  I took $25.00 off her charge as I did not realize she did not want a bustle. 

 Then she noticed that the dress was missing some beading along the front cleavage. She was very large busted and those beads are put on with a single thread.  The pulling of the tulle straps causes the beads to snap.  Now when she brought the dress in I had pulled up the shoulder straps about an inch on each side to bring her bust up a notch as it was sagging over the under bust trim.  I also noticed that she had broken the beading strings on both sides of the straps, probably due to the largeness of her bust. I took the straps up and did a french seam to strengthen to straps and replace the missing beads with the little bead sack they send with dresses. Tulle dress straps stretch very easily and can also fray if the bust is heavy.  Now she wanted the bag of beads and I had used them all to fix her straps so I dug in my bride box and found others to replace and sent her home with extra's.  She left disgruntled and I could not figure out why.

About 5 minutes later she returns and another customer had also pulled up. She told me to take care of him as she had some things she wanted to discuss with me about her dress and she did not want to do it in front of someone else.  I went into shop and got the man's things all the time praying, please Heavenly Father help me with this.  Then she pulled her dress out of her trunk and came back in and told me she did not like the french seam on the shoulder straps.  I explained that they were french seamed before just not enough to prevent stretching and breaking because of the larger bust.  I had always done tulle straps this way and many of my dresses already came like that.  She then turned the dress over and said then why did you replace my zipper?  I looked at her and said I didn't.  Who in there right mind would ever replace a zipper on a wedding dress?  Linda help me here.... I mean really?

She grunted her disapproval and left in a huff after saying that if she had know the straps were going to look like this she would never have had me do them.  I did not argue but they would have continue to stretch and breaking and losing beads without stabilization.  Then she left again and sent two hateful texts.I tried to calm her but she wanted the last word, so I let her have it.  Honestly two tiny one inch seams at the shoulders of a dress cannot even be seen and you would have to have an aerial camera to see them and they had beads all over.  I still don't get it. The more I think about it I think she was trying to get her money back.  I mean to accuse me of replacing her zipper.  There is one crazy bride every year so I guess I was due.

Aunty Jessie sent 4th of July clothes.  Don't they look cute?

I spent the 4th cleaning house and then going to little sis's for a BBQ and swimming.  Then everyone back here at dark to watch the city fireworks from our deck.  Then the three grand kids stayed the night with me and my youngest daughter.  My youngest daughter is very sweet and sensitive to others needs, I just love that kid.

All of us the evening of the 4th blowing bubbles, and playing with poppers.  So fun.

Sissy will be here next week and she will try and whip my butt back into shape.  I should be afraid.

Kim