welcome and farewells

It's been a crazy week around here with little quilting going on...

The middle of last week, the hubby's grandpa went into Hospice.  They gave him 3-5 days to live, but we doubted them.  We shouldn't have.  Wednesday afternoon he passed away.

But before anyone gets terribly upset, you need to know that it was time.  He'd been gradually getting worse and worse over the last year.  His quality of life the past few months was almost zero.  He was a great grandfather many, many times over and lived a full life, though I don't think it was always easy.  He was 85 and had lost his wife almost 20 years ago.  He was ready to see her again (and had been for some time) and seeing him in that Hospice bed was hard for everyone.  He is in a better place now, healthy and whole and reunited with the love of his life.  You can't be too sad when you know that.  He will be missed, but the healthy, loving man we knew a few years ago is how we will remember him.

A fond farewell to Grandpa May.

And I have another fond farewell...

The beloved Neon is gone.  This may be the only picture I have and it was taken to show the garage at our "new" house when we moved here in 2002.  The car just happened to be there.  This is before it started rusting, before the timing belt shredded and started a whole host of problems, and even before my state decided these white-on-blue license plates weren't good enough and sent me a blue-on-white one to replace it.  And before it was fully paid for!

It was doing so many random bad things and I knew the repair bills would just add up and up and up.  I worried every day that I wouldn't make it to and from work without having to involve a tow truck and I'd been car shopping online for a while.

Last week, I paid off another loan, so the money was there and the hubby and I went out yesterday and bought this:

Not the best photo, but I'm still in my pjs so we'll see about getting a better one later.  It looks grey, but the official color is "steel blue metallic" and it's kind of a bluish-greyish-purplish color.  The sun is coming up from behind it, so it's hard to see the color.  But it's a 2009 Vibe.  Used, but since Pontiac doesn't exist any  more, you can't get new ones.

I like it.  :)

The hubby likes it.  :)

My parents like it.  :) 

(We bought it about 5 miles from their house, so not stopping by would be kinda rude.)

My hubby's whole family was impressed with it.  :) 

(We headed straight there for family time after a quick stop at my parents'.)

So a fond farewell to the beloved Neon.  It was hard to see it go.  I thought about taking a photo before we left yesterday, but I just couldn't do it.  I had that car before I met my hubby.  That car plowed its way through huge snowstorms without complaint or trouble.  It got me safely to and from work for 12 years (except that one day where the timing belt shredded and I coasted safely to a stop along a freeway in rush hour traffic...).  And it lasted me 2 more years than my desired 10 - nothing short of a miracle in the eyes of most (noone expected the car to really last longer than about 5 or 6 years because it's a Neon...).

221,700 miles.

And a warm welcome to the new Vibe.

But due to all this excitement, my mind was racing last night.  Crazy dreams, worries about crashing my car before I even make the first real payment, concerns about family...  Strange that this would get the creative juices flowing, but I feel the need to sit down and design a few quilts.  We'll see where that goes...

For today, my goal is to get handprints of my hubby's cousin's immediate family.  The cousin's wife has been diagnosed with throat cancer.  I don't know any more, but I do know that a quilt is in order and, since they have 6 kids, I thought raw-edge applique with handprints from the kids and hubby would be perfect (and fast).  And since they're up from Alabama for Grandpa's funeral, I'll have a fantastic opportunity to do it on the sly.  I'll show pics soon!

Time to go get a few more household chores done before the hubby gets up and we go back over for more family time.

Happy quilting!

Katie