Happy Halloween everyone!

Seems like life is rushing by faster and faster every day. I have no real excuse for not posting sooner - I'm just having a challenge getting back into routines after having so much time off work - first for my shoulder and then at retreat.

The shoulder is getting better each day. Feels great a lot of the time but then hurts when I do the exercises the physical therapist gave me to do. I sewed quite a bit this weekend and by evening it hurt also, but was OK the next day. I've not tried longarming yet - I'm waiting to see what my doctor says this afternoon and the physical therapist says on Friday.

We received marvelous news yesterday - the best possible. Our daughter and son-in-law received word that their paperwork has passed out of the Guatemalan PGN, which means Joseph is now legally their son. It will take 6-8 more weeks for the last paperwork to be done at the US embassy - his passport, his US birth certificate - etc. - and then they can go get him. They will have only a few days warning, so hopefully it will be more like 6 weeks than 8, because 8 weeks goes to Christmas Day. Would probably be hard to get plane reservations that close to Christmas. One way or another we will all be receiving the best Christmas gift we could possibly get. I'm pretty sure I still can't post his picture - I'll do that as soon as I know it's OK.

In the meantime I'm still back to sewing strings. I've doubled the size of the top that I started at retreat. I'm almost finished with another 6 rows - hopefully those will be done by this weekend.

I'm also continuing with my hand quilting. At guild Sew Frenzy last Friday I marked all the borders. I'm now finished with one short border and half finished with the first long border. That one should be a finished project by the end of November. About time - it's been a UFO since the early 1990's!!!

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Gratitudes:

1. A new grandson from Guatemala will arrive before the end of the year

2. Red, yellow, green and orange leaves against a brilliant blue sky

3. An exciting box in Fred's closet for my Christmas gift - I'm sure it contains a design wall!

4. A Tangled Thread friend's son is now out of Iraq

5. Another Tangled Thread friend has a beautiful new grandson