The Joy of Friendship

Friends come in all shapes, sizes, colors, age groups and species. Linda came home with mixed emotions today. Tomorrow finishes her extended teaching assignment as the 6th grade writing teacher. Since early September she's been instructing about 125 students in vocabulary, grammar, literature and the joy of the written word. It's difficult to leave them after being their teacher for 3/4 of the year, but the regular contract teacher has completed her maternity leave and it's time for Linda to move on.



Tears were shed today when her 5th period students presented her with this gorgeous gift basket and beautiful card. There was one human treat (chocolate!) and everything else in the basket was for me and my siblings. Isn't that wonderful of these student writers to take care of us? Linda is grateful that she is now able to call these young people friends and hopes that their paths cross again in the future.

You can see how we immediately started looking at our bounty. Butch has boundless, fearless energy. He was the second one (after me) to get into everything. Logan tends to watch the rest of us for awhile, so it was interesting to have her investigate so quickly.



Sunny immediately claimed a ball. She started carrying it all around the house, growling as she did. She'd drop the ball, bat at it, and then start carrying it around again.



Butch and Trouble, on the other hand, were enamored of the ....the....the thing. It is a wand with feathers at the end. Trouble carried it from room to room with Butch trailing behind to grab it. Negotiating in and around the kitchen chairs proved challenging.



And Logan watched. This is Logan's bewildered expression. The "so what's all this then?" look.



Trice is a friend from Quilted Chaos, our neighborhood quilting group. She recently made this very neat sewing machine catch-all for Linda. It is so cheerful and useful. Trice is generous with her talents.



That's our Janome 6260QC in the picture. We do everything on this machine and love it. Someday we'll do a before and after of the sewing room. Right now it is definitely in the BEFORE stage.


WEEKEND TO DO LIST

Here's the list for the weekend, with the question marks indicating that those items are on the list for Sunday only if it turns out that Linda's not working that day. Have I mentioned how excited we are that she's starting to work at the LQS on weekends? (Good heavens, the woman is giggling at the mere mention of this.)

• Attend "Drive In and Sew" at the LQS on Friday night. More info and pictures will be posted later.
• Have first day of work at the LQS on Saturday. Fortunately buddy Jill is one of the people doing the training, so Linda probably won't end up with any battle scars.
• Laundry
  
• Cut the front yard (first cut of the season)???
• Work on taxes???
• Attend church???
• Get things ready for retreat???
  
• Buy paint and supplies for the kitchen re-do???
• Pay the bills
• Call Mom
• Call Aunt Betty
• Visit Philip???

Count your blessings, not your sorrows, each and every day.
Purrs,
Pi