The Project Linus Retreat

Every year the Rockport Chapter of Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org) has a 3 day, 2 night retreat at The Retreat House on Club Lake Road.

The first year they had it Sue Laza came to town and we went out there together. She showed up with her cute fleece blankets all ready to turn in. I on the other hand got sick. I don't know, some kind of bronchial pneumonia. So while Sue sewed labels onto blankets, I sleep on the couch under a human size roll of polyester batting. Sue became a blanketeer 2 years before me.

The second year I was sick again and didn't even show up. I still had not turned in one blanket, but this time my friend Cheryl brought to my house a "kit" of fabrics to make at home and turn in next year. The "kit" is the one featured in my last post: "On Becoming a Blanketeer".

This year I was determined to make it, even if it meant wearing a hazmat suit. Not only was I going for all three days, but I also decided to show up with 5 (O.K. 4) quilt tops all ready to go into the final steps of batting, backing, and binding.

Lori came down from Dallas and we decided to sleep at the Retreat House (www.theretreathouse.com). Cheryl and Stacy both took a day off work and each spent one night (consecutively). We had the freedom to come and go as we pleased. Some spent the night while others went home. Those who stayed could stay up into the wee small hours of the morning and then emerge the next day and sew for a couple of hours in their pajamas. We got to raid the fridge and take naps whenever we wanted, but mostly we made blankets.

As blanketeer's finished a blanket they yell, "TA-DA!" and then the place would yell back "TA-DA!" and she would get a round of applause. Kindness and laughter abounded while our pile of blankets went from 0 to 130 in three days.

My friend Mary Ann sewing on her Singer Featherweight. She is also the person who took most of these photos.

Project Linus' Chapter President Marsha Files (far left) receiving a SURPRISE gift quilt of appreciation. At the last retreat Cheryl (second from right) passed out 6 inch squares of fabric that had Linus and Snoopy on it. We were instructed to create a 12.5 inch block using shades of blue, AND to keep our mouths shut. We did it and when Marsha was presented her quilt we were all laughing and crying at the same time.

Cheryl's first TA-DA!

Lori's 1st TA-DA!

Lori kept flip-flopping on how she was going to finish this quilt. GET IT!

Stacy hard at work and me, well...

Stacy's first TA-DA!

My first TA-DA and the quilt that made me a blanketeer can be seen in my previous post. You can also see more pictures of quilts my friends and I made at the Retreat by clicking on Cat’s Random Pics to the right of this post. Once there, click on “my public gallery” and look for the album titled: Project Linus Retreat. There are 81 pictures and I KNOW some of you will not want to look at all of them, so I moved all of mine to the top of the list.

Your Welcome!

On Becoming a Blanketeer

First you must clear a space.

Then cut your fabrics.

Sew them together.

Laugh with others when they point out the caption on the bulletin board behind you, especially when it applies to your quilting experience.

TA-DA! Strike a pose for the paparazzi.

Project Linus

I want to tell the enterweb about my experiences at the Project Linus Retreat but then I realized that if you aren't a quilter, or "Blanketeer" as they call us in Project Linus, you would NOT know of what I am referring.

For some background information please (pretty please) click on the link below and watch this short news report on what Project Linus does and how it got started. Maybe you should get a tissue if you are the sensitive type.

Once on the site, click on the word "launch" under the cute child's picture. She's holding her blankee.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16711082/

Recipes from the Crypt

While sitting here at Command Central waiting for my computer to "defrag", I grabbed the recipe book my step-mother made for us before she died. The thing about recipes from my mother and step-mother's generation that interests me is they always give credit to who they got the recipe from. For instance, who is Ona Gifford? She is only known to me by her Chicken Spaghetti recipe. What about Coyla? Evidently she made an awesome cheese cake and now I have the recipe. And someone named Alice Beth was famous for making a great chocolate cake. My Aunt Fern (also dead) gets credit for a recipe titled: "Yummy Salad". It's made with those colored marshmellows from Kraft. I think I'll make it again for Easter.

At this time I would like to note that in my step-mother's recipe book there are two recipes that do not give credit to whom credit is due, the recipes are: Broccoli and Rice Casserole and Pineapple Ice Box Cake. I know that these came from Carlene so today I give her credit for them here on the web. Mom, do you remember where you got them? And do you know Ona Gifford?

Chicken Spaghetti from the kitchen of Ona Gifford (serves 10-12):

1 fat hen
1 pkg. long spaghetti
1 green pepper (diced)
1/2 bunch celery (diced)
1 large onion (diced)
1/2 lb. grated sharp cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup (undiluted)
2 pods garlic (minced)

Directions: Stew hen to make plenty of rich broth. Reserve the broth. Debone and dice the chicken. Skim 1 cup of fat from the chicken broth and saute all the vegetables and garlic. Add cheese, soup, chicken and spaghetti (that has been cooked in chicken broth reserve). Let simmer about 30 minutes to mix flavors. Umm, Umm, good!!!

Shop Hop

I was looking at my blogspot profile and I realized that maybe I should spend some time blogging about my "interests". So today I will talk about my involvment with the Piecemakers by the Bay Quilt Guild of Rockport.

Recently we went on a "Shop Hop" traveling from quilt store to quilt store by charter bus. We started in Rockport at Golden Needles then loaded the bus and headed north to Port Lavaca, then on Blessing and back south to Victoria, TX.

I am the guild treasurer and somehow that translates bus stewardess, as I had to take up lunch money, pass out gift bags and administer cookies during the trip. I had a great time with these good friends.

Golden Needles Quilt Shop of Rockport, TX

Catherine Passing out Gift Bags

Look at those REDS in Blessing, TX

Quilter's Patch in Victoria, Texas

Cat Nap

To see all my Shop Hop pictures, click on Cat's Random Pics in the right of this post and then look for and click on "my public gallery". Then look for the album titled: Shop Hop.

Standing on the Brink of Greatness

Yesterday I went to see the doctor and for the first time in my life I saw them record something on my chart that had never been recorded before: 100 lbs.

For those of you just joining us, about 6 months ago my doctor prescribed an appetite stimulant (a progesterone) because I weighed 80.5 lbs. and had no appetite.

First of all, not having an appetite is a phenomenon most people can not identify with. It would be like me trying to understand someones experience with Social Anxiety Disorder; I just don't get it. I've tried to understand it, but I can't and yet I know it is real to them.

So let me explain my experience. It's simple: I had NO appetite. I ate only because the clock said it was time to eat and most of the time I forgot to look at the clock. Who forgets to eat? When I did eat, nothing appealed to me. I don't know where my appetite went, all I knew was it was gone and I was losing weight....again. I was frustrated and worried.

Yesterday at the doctors office, I told him that when he prescribed the medicine I was skeptical that it would work, and he confessed to me that he didn't think it would work either. So needless to say he was thrilled with my progress and never imagined that I would do so well. He calls my weight gain "reserves" for the next time I get sick and he wanted me to start lifting weights to develop some muscle mass.

It feels good to have an appetite. It feels good to get cranky when dinner is late. Everything tastes good to me: Mac and Cheese, meat, burnt brussel sprouts, whatever..........gimme, gimme, gimme, my name is Jimmie!

Comic Relief

I interrupt my thoughts on death with a glimpse of my family in their underwear.

Suelaza wrote me in an email a while back the following:
"The first time I went to the Hanna household on a Sunday afternoon, everyone, everyone, Mr., Mrs., Billy Carl, Glory, David and Catherine were in their UNDERWEAR. It was one of life's strangest moments but obviously not that shocking because I kept going back."

Dad putting on the BVDs!

Billy Carl and Glory on laundry day.

Glory Baby Dave with what appears to be a wedgy.

Catherine Camille

Thomas Guthrie

You might be thinking it is no big deal running around in your underwear when you are just a mere babe. But the sad truth is, we never stopped.

Once while out of town, Carlene stayed at my house to babysit the cats. When I called her she told me the pastor came over. The FIRST question out of my mouth was, "Mom, did you have your clothes on?"

And just a few short weeks ago, I got caught in my front yard wearing boxer shorts and a tank top.

Preparing for Heaven in 2007

Preparing for Heaven in 2007 is my motto, mantra, mission statement, for the year. I don't know exactly what that means, but it is something I want to do.

My sweet Aunt Barbara died a few months ago. She was sick a long time and died at Carlene's house under hospice care. Barbara Lou had made all the necessary arrangements so when that fateful day came all Mom had to do was make one phone call. The funeral home came and got her, cremated her and then mailed her "cremains" to her daughter in Alabama. Done!

Well except for one thing, all the crap she left behind. They emptied her storage unit and now it fills the room at Mom's house that Barbara use to live in.

So preparing for heaven to me means throwing away my crap today. If you begin thinking like this you will see that your house is filled with STUFF that just takes up space. George Carlin has a great perspective on how we place such importance on our "STUFF". (For all you 20 somethings reading this, George Carlin was a famous comedian in the late 60's and early 70's. You can see him on www.youtube.com)

When Glory came to visit in November she noted that I was a project starter but not a finisher. I know that. But in preparing for heaven in 2007 I feel I need to finish the projects I have started around the house.

I need to make lists of what needs to be done with my left overs after I am gone. I think the term for that is Last Will and Testement. I need to squander my money so that I have nothing to leave my family and friends but my house. Who wants my house, it comes with a dog and 11 cats?

Don't worry, I'm not dying soon but I think about it a lot. My current goal is to out live my pets.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Ps. 139

Wimsical?

If you go back and read the last comment on the post "Party Dog" you will see that my friend Denise wants me to write something "witty and entertaining".

I could do that, but I would rather write about death. So to start, here is a poem by Billy Collins (my favorite). I can identify with what he writes and I think it is witty and entertaining.....what do you think Denise?

My Number

Is Death miles away from this house,
reaching for a widow in Cinncinati
or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker
in British Columbia?

Is he too busy making arrangements,
tampering with air brakes,
scattering cancer cells like seeds,
loosening the wooden beams of roller coasters

to bother with my hidden cottage
that visitors find so hard to find?

Or is he stepping from a black car
parked at the dark end of the lane,
shaking open the familiar cloak,
its hood raised like the head of a crow,
and removing the scythe from the trunk?

Did you have any trouble with the directions?
I will ask, as I start talking my way out of this.

Thomas Guthrie

O.K. let's face it, the 60's were not a good time for the Hanna family. Everyone of us (Carlene, Bill, Glory, David, Catherine and Thomas) can stop and recall countless MAJOR events that happened during those years that has had a lasting effect on how we live in the present.

The "Norman Rockwell" family portrait was on the verge of disintegration, but right before it did Thomas Guthrie was born on this day in 1965. Tom was born into chaos and has lived in chaos his whole life.

Tom, if I were to give you a gift for your birthday it would be the gift of bravery: bravery to battle the demons within, bravey to be real about the issues that keep tripping you up, and bravery to let go of the fact that your family fell apart long before you could do anything to stop it.

Happy Birthday and next year lets eat cake!