The Sewing Mom

We moved away from the Midwest because my husband was tired of the snow. Apparently he didn’t realized that we were sort of moving out of the pot and into the fire. No, we don’t have snow here in Texas (although we did receive about 3 inches in January), but we do have frequent severe thunderstorms, hail, and high winds. It can be quite scary sitting in the house listening to the winds howl, wondering if the roof will still be there once the storm moves on.

I find myself not only worrying about the exterior of our home, but I also have to watch out for power surges inside. We have so much electronic gear that if lightening were to strike, we could be out thousands of dollars. Even though most of our electronics are on surge protectors, I don’t take chances. During severe thunderstorms I will shut down all of the computers and unplug them. I also unplug kitchen appliances (the smaller ones sitting on the counter) and, of course, I unplug my sewing machine.

My sewing machine was a huge investment for me and I feel the need to protect it. It doesn’t just sew, it also embroiders. It’s so easy for me to take precautions like unplugging it and I feel confident that it is safe from electrical damage during the storm. I recall when we were buying this house, getting home insurance quotes to make sure everything was covered. If the homeowner’s insurance didn’t cover it, I wouldn’t be able to replace it. It’s very important to know what your insurance covers in your home.

It’s clouding up again outside, I should probably check the weather report to see if anything is headed our way.

I want to extend my apologies to anyone who has attempted to open my site, only to have the Paypal widget bog things down.

I’m really not clear as to what happened. Things were fine this morning, but when I tried to open my site this afternoon, the widget wouldn’t load and then gave me an Adobe error message. I re-booted my computer and it seemed to take care of the problem, at least from my end.

If you’re having trouble with my site loading, and have the patience, please leave me a comment. If it continues, I will remove the widget. I want to thank Jennifer of Robin’s Woods for letting me know about this issue. I appreciate other bloggers who take the time to comment, even if it’s to let me know about an issue such as this.

My step-daughter, her husband and their beautiful baby were just here this past weekend and we had so much fun. That little girl is growing so fast that we’ve decided to do our best to head out to Los Angeles, possibly for Thanksgiving to see her again. We have so many memories out there, it’s where I met my husband, where we got married and where we owned our first home. We left California in 1991 and I’ve only been back a couple of times since. There really are so many great things to do in Los Angeles and the surrounding area, that I have no doubt we could keep ourselves busy.

The last time we were out there was when my step-daughter got married a few years ago. We went out a week before the wedding and spent 5 days in Anaheim visiting Disneyland and California Adventure. I’ve been going to Disneyland since I was a little girl and it was so much fun sharing that experience with our own daughter. I’m hoping that if we do go in November that we’ll be able to take our granddaughter to see Mickey Mouse, even though I don’t think she will be big enough to ride too much.

Another one of our favorites was always Knott’s Berry Farm. They don’t have all the giant roller coasters that Magic Mountain has, but they do have a lot of fun rides and great shows. We didn’t get to go there the last time we were in town, so that would be something fun to put on our to do list.

I think one of my most memorable experiences I had in Los Angeles was getting to see Michael Crawford perform in The Phantom of the Opera, it was absolutely incredible. I still love the music from the performance and listen to the cd regularly. That show gave me my love of live theater, something I’ve tried to share with our daughter by taking her to see Broadway productions.

We never really visited the museums in Los Angeles, but if I went to New York, I’d be sure to visit the Metropolitan museum of art, mainly because of all the historical paintings that are there. In fact, strangely enough, I just this morning read that San Antonio has its own Metropolitan Museum of Art. That’s a heck of a lot closer to Dallas then New York, so maybe I’ll check that out first!

With airfare becoming so expensive and all the add-on charges like fees for luggage, it’s becoming questionable, even with our high gas prices, if flying is the cheapest method of travel, especially when you’re talking about an entire family traveling. One thing I’ve done to help me plan our upcoming trips in July was to sign up for online travel guides from Trusted Tours and Attractions. I’ve all ready signed up, but if you sign for the newsletter now, you can win a handheld GPS system. Hurry though, this offer ends on June 30.

I have discovered another home crafter via blogging. This particular crafter creates candles. These aren’t just any old candle, these candles are made by hand soy candles and have some of the most divine scents and fragrances. She recently combined two of her scents, apple jack & peel with luscious cheesecake. That sounds fabulous to me! She also sells one of my favorite fragrances, cinnamon vanilla. That’s a fragrance I love to burn in my kitchen, it reminds me of snicker doodle cookies.

In celebration of the opening of her candle storefront, Rae is hosting a candle giveaway. To enter this contest, visit What Lies Within the Mirror and leave her a comment, purchase a candle and or write a post about her giveaway on your own blog. These candles would make great gifts too, stock up now!

We were so busy yesterday with my daughter and her various softball practices that we didn’t have much time to do anything else. So, today we spent the day working on the yard. I know today is supposed to be a day of rest, but it really was the only time we could get it done.

However, once the work was done, we made sure we spent the rest of the day relaxing, mostly out in and around the pool. I spent the afternoon floating on a raft while my husband lounged on a chair getting some sun. Our daughter (who didn’t help with the yard work) spent a little bit of time in the pool and the rest of the day either playing Wii or talking with her friend on IM.

Last weekend we didn’t get the yard mowed at all because we had company and it was Father’s Day on Sunday. So, I mowed the entire yard by myself on Monday. I was completely exhausted. Our front yard has to me mowed with the gas push mower because of how the sprinkler were put in. If we mow with the rider it will damage the sprinkler and pipes. The rider is too heavy for them. We found that out the hard way and recently had 6 repaired and/or replaced.

Anyway, when I was all done mowing on Monday, I spent the rest of the day in and around the pool. All that mowing completely wore me out. So, in the evening, instead of showering, I decided to use our big jetted tub for the first time since we moved in over a year ago. I filled it to just below the top, along with some bath salts and climbed in. It felt absolutely awesome. The only problem? I had trouble getting out of the tub. The side of the tub is quite high, mid-thigh, and the water spigot and knobs are right in the middle of it. The only way out is to carefully climb over the side, not the easiest thing to do when you’re wet and naked.

We had a tub just like this one in our previous house and I swore I would never have another one designed this way. I just don’t know how they think a person can safely get out of the tub. I’m not getting any younger either, so I certainly don’t see this getting any easier. I really need to replace this tub with a walkin tub and make my life simpler. I just don’t know why they couldn’t put the spigot on the side, it would have certainly made getting in and out of the tub a lot safer and easier.

What type of tub do you have and do you use it?