My Time in Oklahoma

I just got back from a week in Oklahoma visiting Robin, Jeremy, and Autumn. I arrived there Tuesday, March 18th, and returned home Tuesday, March 25th. It was a good visit. I had the chance to just relax and read and knit the few days Robin was at work. Jeremy was on travel for his job the first half of my visit, so Robin welcomed my company and help with Autumn. The weather was gorgeous while I was there. The clouds stayed away all days but one. Even the days that were a bit chilly, were a crisp, sunny, chilly that required no more that a sweater or light jacket to be comfortable. Autumn and I enjoyed sitting on the new swing on Jeremy and Robin's front porch. I read to her and swung with her. We played ball, did puzzles, and built with duplo bricks. I also got to observe her splashing at daycare and playing with a little boy, the son of one of Robin's friends.

Autumn's tentative smile hints that she is not yet too sure about this Grandma person sitting next to her.
Hmm... the person does look a lot like that lady in the computer she talks to with Skype.

Autumn was initially timid about my presence. Skype-ing helps but it is not as good person to person contact. Autumn began accept me when her desire to be read to overcame her apprehension. She is really, really, and I mean REALLY, into books now. I brought out with me four cloth books I had sewn and two hardcover books I'd bought.

I sewed these four cloth books for Autumn.

One of the hard cover books had been an impulse buy at the checkout line at the Jo-Ann's fabric store here in Livermore that I just could not pass up since it was so darn cute. It was called ... and Nobody  Noticed the Mouse and is about a little mouse who sneaks into a wedding. The illustrations are adorable, showing the mouse hiding behind a hymn book, in a bouquet of flowers, up in the organ loft of the church, on a rich lady's hat, and in the kitchen of a grand hotel, among other places. Autumn loved finding the mouse on each page and I began to win her over after reading the book to her four times in a row.

This is an adorable book for a young child.
The artwork is precious.

Here I am pointing out to Autumn where the mouse is hiding on this page.

The other hard cover she loved, especially reading it with her daddy, was Hide–and–Ghost Seek. Knowing Jeremy's penchant for Zombies and Halloween, I thought this book would appeal to him. There are 101 ghost images to find in this book. Grandma has her limits. I left that book for father-daughter bonding.

101 ghosts to find in this book!
And they are not as easy to find as 101 dalmations!

I joked with Robin that Autumn's relationship with her grandma was like Groundhog Day, the movie with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell where Bill Murray needs to live the same day over and over again until he gets it right.

 Déjá vu all over again.

Every day had a repeatable sequence. Each morning Autumn clung to her mom and shrunk from me, seemingly forgetting that I was the very same person who had hugged her, kissed her, held her, played with her, and read many, many books to her just the evening before.

Here I am playing catch with Autumn in the evening.
From Autumn's enthusiasm and level of engagement,
 you can tell this this was not taken in the morning.

Robin and I were able sew a bit, talk quilting, peruse quilting magazines and books, and visit fabric stores while I was there. More info on that is in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt in the post with the link  http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2014/03/wip-time-out.html.

I also brought with me to show her a quilt I had made for the new baby daughter of her best friend Mary before I mailed it off. It's feature fabric is a design line titled "The Ghastlies" where the characters remind me of members of the Addams Family from classic TV fame.

Do you remember this classic TV show with Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, and Lurch?
They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky, the Addams Family.

You can read more about the quilt and Robin's friend Mary in a post from my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt.

For more pictures and information on this quilt see the post  http://dianeloves2quilt.blogspot.com/2014/03/ghastlies-quilt-completed.html

Here we are with the Ghastlies quilt, folded strategically for mailing. Jeremy, with his characteristic attention to detail, posed us holding up the quilt with me next to the mom Ghastlie on the left and Robin next to the daughter Ghastlie on the right.

Mothers and daughters.

My SWA flights home both departed on time and arrived early. Fortunately, routing through Denver presented no weather challenges. Neither flight was full and I had an aisle seat with an empty middle seat next to me on both flights. As I trundled out the terminal doors with my luggage, Frank was just pulling up to curb to pick me up. What luck and what timing! Now that is finishing off a great visit with flair!