The phone from @#$%

Between this phone and my previous--now non-working--phone, I have wasted more than 8 hours.  And as of right now, I still don't have a working VoIP phone with which to call my students.

Mystery solved!

Last month I received my credit card bill and it showed I had missed a payment.  That is NOT how I do things, but I arranged to get the overdue bill and the current charges paid as soon as possible, and wondered how I could have made that kind of mistake.

All that did not enter my mind yesterday when I received a statement from a credit card I closed a couple of years ago that showed no charges, yet a payment had been made, to the tune of . . .

. . . yes, $661!

 

I called the bank and the man was as confused as I was, but asked for a couple of minutes to research the situation.  He came back on and asked if there were any possibility I had used my electronic payment system and paid the wrong credit card.

 

About then the haze from my mind lifted and I remembered the "missed" payment.  Yep, they were the same.

 

Mystery solved and I'll be receiving a $661 check in the mail in a few days.

Good bye, old friends

Can shirts that have been in the family for years be considered old friends?  The girls usually do their own wash, but I had extra time today so I did it for them.

The first shirt was originally purchased from The Gap for younger step-daughter when we lived in Idaho.  Her mother played that "game" that childish divorced parents sometimes play, which is to not send clothes with the children for weekend visitations.  We went to The Gap and picked up this shirt, a pair of jeans, a dress/jumper, and a shirt to wear under it, in addition to a pair of dress shoes.

Since then all three of the younger girls have worn this shirt (as well as the jumper and other shirt), but when I was folding clothes I saw this one has a little hole in the lower left as well as some light stains and open hem seams.  So this one has had its last wearing.

The red Lands' End polo has an even longer history.  When I was a single parent I was really poor, so I shopped for my children at thrift stores.  However--I only bought the good-quality brand names!  I remember I got this shirt for Kevin for only about $1.50 and he wore it for quite awhile, then my step-daughter, and then two of the three younger girls, in addition to whoever wore it before donating it to the thrift store.

 Kevin tore a three-cornered hole in the lower right early on and I couldn't afford to throw out the shirt so I stitched it up with a needle and thread.  Elizabeth has especially liked this shirt, but the last time she wore it I noticed the edges of the sleeves were frayed and there were some light stains in it as well.

I'm going to cut the buttons off the polo shirt and bravely drop them both into the trash.  Wait.  I've heard little cotton scraps can be composted.  Maybe I'll do that.  Or not.

Mystery Quilt III

Of course I didn't *do* MQ I or MQ II, but I *am* doing Mystery Quilt III. :-) 

When I first heard about QuiltersWorld's mystery quilt about a year ago, I hadn't ever pieced a quilt and didn't want to learn on a quilt I didn't even know if I'd like!  Since then I've pieced two projects, including a bed-sized quilt, and feel confident enough to delve into a Mystery Quilt.

Week 1: instructions to find light, medium, and dark "warm" toned fabric scraps, along with cream or white background fabric, and the quantities were given.

Week 2:  start cutting specific colors into precise sizes, including triangles!  I've been wanting to do something with triangles, which is something new for me.

Week 3:  I don't know yet because it's only week 2.  I suspect I'll have 2 more weeks of cutting, then start sewing in Week 5.

I think the pattern might be some kind of leaf pattern.  I hope it is, but am open to whatever it works up to be.  I've been wanting to make an Autumn quilt for several years now, so thanks to the colors, no matter what the design turns out to be, it'll be an Autumn quilt.

The yellow looks awfully bright in this picture; in reality it's a soft mustard color.

Meal Plan Sunday

Monday:  Sloppy Joe Casserole,  green salad [This casserole was a big hit with everyone.  I made whole wheat yeast dough and put balls of it on top instead of the commercial biscuits called for.]

Tuesday:  Egg, potato, green chili, Mexican cheese casserole

Wednesday:  Sausage Tortellini Soup, rolls [Everyone loved this.  I used a bigger package of tortellini than called for and would recommend that.  It was 13 oz.]

Thursday:  Pumpkin soup

Friday:  Pizza

Temple location?

Mormons in Tucson are getting a temple!  Actually, everyone in the city will be able to take a tour during the Open House before the temple is dedicated to God, so I guess you could say everyone in Tucson is getting a temple.

This is a possible location:

The blue dot is a location where the LDS Church has 10 acres and it is widely thought to be the location for the construction of the new temple.  However, until the Church officially announces a location, it is just speculation.  Which is tons of fun.

Stake BBQ

No, I didn't misspell "steak."  In Mormonspeak, a "stake" is the umbrella organization above a local congregation, or "ward."  There are usually about 7-11 wards in a stake.  Today was the annual stake BBQ and it is always a big event.

For the past few years dinner has been delicious, succulent pulled pork with BBQ sauce, ranch beans, coleslaw, and a wonderful thin flour tortilla.  In addition there is a big dessert table with cookies and cupcakes.  This year was no different and I was glad.  There was also a free snow cone booth, jumping castles for the kids, along with a fishing pond (prizes), face painting, and a football game.

Here are two of my girls with their pretty face art:

 Elizabeth got this one first and it is a vine of roses.

This came second and it's dead roses.  Her idea.  Funny!

Perfect attendance

The girls ended their first semester and both Caroline and Elizabeth had perfect attendance.  Today was an award ceremony for perfect attendance as well as six other classroom awards such as a Kindness Award and a Super Reader award.

My girls were very pleased with themselves!

About 50 more students were called from just the 3-5 grades.  About 1/3 of the school's students had perfect attendance which really pleased me (and the principal!).  I think school is so important that almost nothing should keep children away from school except medical appointments, sickness, and very important family events such as weddings or funerals.  Anything else on the part of the parent is either bad or lazy parenting or both.

Activity Day

Today I decided our activity would center on this activity in the Serving Others section of the Faith in God for Girls booklet:

Write a letter to a teacher, your parents, or your grandparents telling them what you appreciate and respect about them.

I didn't want them to just write a letter (and that wouldn't take up the alloted 75 minutes), so I got the idea to have the girls make pop up cards to go with their letters of appreciation.  This YouTube video told me everything I needed to know.

The girls and I thought up things they might admire and respect in someone and I wrote them down on a big sheet of paper. They wrote their letters on triangular pieces of paper.

After they made their cards and decorated them, I glued their notes inside each one.  Aren't they cute?

Guess which bobcat we saw in our neighborhood today?

If you guessed the second one, you're right. 

I walked the girls to school since it was "Walk or Ride Your Bike To School Day," and near the school the girls saw a "cat."  They had already decided it was some kind of wild cat before I got there to see it.  I thought it was an ocelot.

On my walk home several people were watching something on another street and it was the same cat.  When I got home I looked up "ocelot" and found out it would be a really rare thing to see one here, although possible.  In addition, the ocelot's ears were rounded instead of pointed with a tuft of hair.  At that point Bill said, Oh, you probably saw a bobcat!

I looked up "bobcat" and found the picture above on wikipedia.  It's the variety of cat we saw.

Bill said it would love to eat our chickens and even the chicken wire cage would not stop it, but no problem because the bobcat was in the next neighborhood across a busy street.

Half an hour later I left in the car for an appointment and guess what I saw at the end of our street . . . ?