Author Archives: Dianne

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About Dianne

Domestic goddess, wife, mom, gardener, paper and collage artist, geocacher, local traveler, cross stitcher, baker, crafter, Facebooker, blogger, decorator and photographer.

Sibling bonding

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My brother Don in Florida is surviving without electricity. He has running water, but every night he uses the flashlight to read. He is cooking on the grill (even spaghetti!) This has been going on for almost a week. Mom asked me to order him a battery-operated lamp yesterday. After a little searching, I found a $36 one for $19 at Walmart.com. So I ordered it and 2 packages of batteries for him. Hopefully he’ll be able to see more at night in a few days time.
It took Don 4 hours to get gas yesterday. Most of the gas stations have conveniently taken down the price signs. Isn’t that nice of them?
Don called on a phone he bought at a store where he had to tell them what he wanted and then they went in and got the stuff for you. I guess it’s a battery-operated phone. So he called when we were unloading groceries and I called him back. We talked for over an hour. I had to fill him in on Survivor and The Apprentice. We talked about the silly antics of our pets. We talked about our mom. I haven’t seen Don in over 3 yrs since Sean, mom and I went down to visit him. He said he may not have power until Thanksgiving! I don’t know how all the senior citizens down there will cope. I hope our government officials get cracking.

My brain hurts…

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Thanks for sending Nancy!

Your Brain’s Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy.
You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts.
People may say you’re hard to read, but that’s because you’re so internally focused.
But when you do share what you’re thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

I’m a #11

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Thanks for this link, Nancy. I actually followed it from another link.
And I was born in the 11th month also. I can relate to a lot of this info.

You entered: Dianne
There are 6 letters in your name.
Those 6 letters total to 29
There are 3 vowels and 3 consonants in your name.

Your number is: 11

The characteristics of #11 are: High spiritual plane, intuitive, illumination, idealist, a dreamer.

The expression or destiny for #11:
Your Expression number is 11. The number 11 is the first of the master numbers. It is associated with idealistic concepts and rather spiritual issues. Accordingly, it is a number with potentials that are somewhat more difficult to live up to. You have the capacity to be inspirational, and the ability to lead merely by your own example. An inborn inner strength and awareness can make you an excellent teacher, social worker, philosopher, or advisor. No matter what area of work you pursue, you are very aware and sensitive to the highest sense of your environment. Your intuition is very strong; in fact, many psychic people and those involved in occult studies have the number 11 expression. You possess a good mind with keen analytical ability. Because of this you can probably succeed in most lines of work, however, you will do better and be happier outside of the business world. Oddly enough, even here you generally succeed, owing to your often original and unusual approach. Nonetheless, you are more content working with your ideals, rather than dollars and cents.

The positive aspect of the number 11 expression is an always idealistic attitude. Your thinking is long term, and you are able to grasp the far-reaching effects of actions and plans. You are disappointed by the shortsighted views of many of your contemporaries. You are deeply concerned and supportive of art, music, or of beauty in any form.

The negative attitudes associated with the number 11 expression include a continuous sense of nervous tension; you may be too sensitive and temperamental. You tend to dream a lot and may be more of a dreamer than a doer. Fantasy and reality sometimes become intermingled and you are sometimes very impractical. You tend to want to spread the illumination of your knowledge to others irrespective of their desire or need.

Brother Don hit hard in Florida

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So I’m talking about crocheting and all while my brother Don is living in chaos down in suburban Fort Lauderdale. Wilma hit them good. He hasn’t had power since Monday. Today he ran out of gas. Thank goodness our Mom sent him a little money in the mail as he was down to his last $4. Everything is on a cash basis too as the gas pumps are all electronic now. Why didn’t they at least have a ‘manual’ pump somewhere where hurricanes can strike several times a year? Dumb and dumber. Don says it’s like a third world country with no traffic lights. Wish he would pack up and move north again.
Even the webmistress who runs ‘Make A Child Smile’ said there will be no kids for November. She was driving around (lives near where Don works) trying to pick up an internet connection on her laptop to write her message above.
I wish them and all the people without power, food and money some relief soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s really quiet here today. I do miss Mom. I forgot to mention she probably needs a hearing aide too. She’s fine talking to you when you are sitting right next to her, but move 10 feet away and it’s a yelling match. I guess that’s another thing to do soon. I’ll see her again on Monday when we stop by my brother’s on Halloween.

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Making stars

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Picking up my crochet hook again recently lead me to try for the umpteenth time to make stars needed for Brian’s American flag afghan that is now going on 3 yrs old. If at first if you don’t succeed, try, try again. Finally it dawned on me how the directions wanted me to make the 5 points for the star! Some of those directions are sure vague. I now have actually made 10 stars from last night to tonight! I’ll probably only do one side as there is a definite wrong side to the afghan. Hopefully in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to post a finished photo of the finally finished afghan. My mom has a finished Granny square afghan she made for my nephew and she never finished it because she didn’t put a border on it. I think that’s the easiest part. I just picked up a crochet book with a ton of borders in it. I’ll have to get her busy with it again.

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It’s been a rather long week

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I just drove my mom home today. She was to stay overnight on Monday, but turned her visit into a 3-day one. I don’t really have any problem with this. I do like to observe her and try to get food into her. I am definitely mothering my Mother now. She decided she wanted to sleep on the sofa for 3 nights. It would have been better for her to be in the back room, but she didn’t want to sleep there. I have noticed a change in Mom, not that good of a change. Like when she takes her pain pills she like almost passes out if she is semi-sitting on the sofa. She says some funny things. She told me that I should run all my glassware that I display on the window through the dishwasher. Her appetite is terrible. She did eat all her dinner last night plus a piece of Sean’s ice cream cake. Today she only ate oatmeal and about 2 McNuggets and fries. I felt bad leaving her after I left her house because her voice just had to crack when she said ‘good-bye’ and I got wet eyes for a good 15 minutes or so driving in the work traffic home.

Pin cushions

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These are some pin cushions I made over the weekend. I had a bad night Friday night (had insomnia) so it was nice to sit at the table and do something creative. The round pin cushion isn’t actually finished yet. I will probably add some ribbon to the edge. I took a candy tin and spray painted it a tan color. There are two layers of batting so there is something to stick the needles into. It is a Prairie Schooler freebie called ‘Stick it Here’.
The other pin cushions are so easy to make! The bottoms are a spool of thread. Don’t pick up the ones that cost $2.50 each like I did! The tops are half a styrofoam ball cover with fabric. The red one has a little glass ‘drop’ with a mushroom inside that someone sent me when I ordered a handmade glass item from them. I thought it looked cute hanging from this. Mom saw them and asked if she could have one! I plan to make more!
My mom stayed overnight and will probably be here another night. She needed to get away from her house, plus she got to go to the Olive Garden with us!