No more excuses! We're H*E*R*E!!

As of yesterday, we are official residents of Brookings Oregon. The last month was a blur of cleaning, sorting, packing, hauling and unpacking. Hard work - we may be too old for this!! And for sure we have too much stuff - and I'm even talking about quilting stuff too!

We showed up at the Goodwill drop-off so much that the gal started saving good boxes for me! Now that's a full service charity!!

A week ago - we loaded the truck and moved the furniture. We had our DSIL come down from Portland to help us load and our son from Ashland come to help unload. Unloading was harder - we had to carry everything up to the second floor. And the old folks were wearing out by then - as DS said, "That's okay - this is only the first time I've moved this today!" Got it all crammed into the condo and the garage. Slept overnight and then took off for Ashland with the couch and chair we were giving to DS. Thus started the grand tour week!

You think you were ignored, we hadn't even seen the grandkids for 4 weeks! We needed some serious 'hug-pats'. So stayed in Ashland overnight with A&J2 and then drove up to Portland to L&Js for 2 days and 3 nights of no sleep! Mr M has a bad cough and is sleeping even less than usual! We had lots of fun playing and watching 'The Princess and the Frog' which is Miss P's favorite now. We also took time out to go find a few things we needed at the new condo; we saw Ironman 2 and ate at a favorite Italian restaurant.

Then off to Newport to clean and finish packing all the last minute supplies at the condo. Mr Clean Magic Eraser - if you don't have them - get them!!! That's all I have to say! We also watched alot of favorite tv shows on DVR - before we turned in our cable box! Would you believe the landlord said he'd never seen the condo left that clean and gave us back our full deposit! Hip hip hooray! Great drive down the coast to the new digs. Unloaded both cars - and fell into bed!

This morning woke up with a headache and it was all overwhelming. Boxes everywhere. DH pitched in and we got the kitchen all stashed away. Then all the clothes and linens ... now I'm in good shape except for the sewing space. Oh well, it will come!

You all know I belong to Stashbusters online. Now I told those girls to slow down with the UFO finishes - there's 79 of us in the challenge. I finished A&J2's wedding quilt in March and here I am at the top of the list already!! Yep, you may refer to me as Queen Doni this week! I've belonged to SBs for 5-6 years and have never been Queen before. As queen you have to finish an UFO during your reign [a week] or pay up a FQ! I may have to pay the penalty. We'll see! I am making the most of my queenly-ness! I may not have time to sew, but I have time to type! So they are getting daily royal decrees! I told my DH that I had to use the computer because I was queen of the UFOs. And I heard him mutter, "I'll say!" What! Off with his head!! LOL!

I'm back - and should be able to have weekly posts again. See you soon.

News from the moving front!

First let me tell you if you have a chance to see a Cirque du Soleil performance - run to it!! I know they are expensive - BUT it was worth every penny!! Kooza was a hoot! And it was so much fun to go to it with my daughter - who is an expert on Cirque. The four of us [DD, DSIL, DH and me] sat mesmerized for the whole show! The grandkids are too young yet - but I can see they will be coming with us when elementary school age!

Then I was able to go right to our Bayshore Quilt Retreat in Bandon. The rest of the gals gathered on Sunday night - I joined them Monday morning and apparently brought the rain with me! It rained the next 3 days! I pieced together my Alphabet block exchange quilt into a top. It needs to be done by August for the show. And since I ran the exchange I think mine better be in there! Then worked all day on my quilted sweatshirt - it looked so easy - but I found out it's time consuming! It's supposed to be done by May meeting - but I still have to fit it and sew the final seams and 'bind' it. Tick tock, tick tock! The retreat was so much fun and we got alot of sewing done and lots of laughing and way too much 'eating of chocolate!' LOL!

Wednesday, when I got home from retreat I actually fell asleep at 6 pm! I woke up after the news and read for a couple of hours, but then slept thru the night. R got back up to Newport Thursday night and we decided to follow the good weather and turn around with 2 more carloads headed to Brookings Friday! Another trip like that and we may have 1/2 our stuff here!

It was misting here Saturday morning when we were unloading the cars. But it cleared up to be a gorgeous day. I worked most of the day - I've gotten all the non-sewing room boxes emptied and stashed. Whether I'll be able to find stuff without looking thru EVERYTHING remains to be seen. We brought our second bookcase this trip so - was able to unpack those boxes. I even sat out on the deck with a "Coastal Living" magazine in the afternoon! Beautiful blue ocean as far as you could see!

Last night I had the best hamburger I'd had in a very long time! We went up to Whaleshead to watch the spout in a sea stack there. It was the first rock spout I ever spotted back on our first visit to the Oregon coast and hence - one of my favorites! After the cool breeze chased us to dinner we went to the Whaleshead Restaurant and I got the only seat in the house with a view of the spout!!! On top of that ... it was a great hamburger with 6 pickle slices!! Bacon, cheese and homemade bun!! Just what I was craving!! R said the fish and chips were excellent too - so we have a second hangout! Our first has to be Ponchos Mexican - also discovered on our first trip!

I have my little Featherweight sewing machine here so I just may do a little piecing while Rick is playing golf today. We head back north tomorrow for haircuts and appointments.