Still sewing away ...

Still sewing away on my special project.

But for a bit this morning, I took a break from it to work on a spur of the moment craft project (aren't those sometimes the best kind?!)

I present to you a train:


But not just any train, a special countdown train. We can't wait until just these numbers are showing:


But right now we are at


Okay, okay, by the time I publish it, there will be 27 days left. Left until what you ask? Left until I officially go crazy. Okay, well, that might be a side effect. 27 days until the 3 children and I board a train in Chicago and travel to Boston, where my in-laws will pick us up and take us to their house in New Hampshire!

I can NOT wait. Although, bummed hubby couldn't go - but he has no vacation left. There is a sad backstory to how all of this happened, but it will have a happy ending. (and yes, I will share all the details with you even if you don't want to read them!)

My middle daughter's birthday is soon - next week soon! This weekend I called to talk to my MIL about what to get her. She said she thought about shopping but realized she had no idea what to get Miss M because she hasn't seen the kids in so long (since last summer people!!). And I admit it, my heart broke. In 1,000 pieces. I felt horrible and then I felt guilty and I thought about how I would feel if I only saw my grandkids less than once a year, and I felt doubly guilty. And the thing is in our house and in their house money is tight. And living half-way across the country from each other makes it hard to see each other with tight budgets, ya know?

So last night hubby and I decided we would make it happen. I called to find out what dates would be okay, and I'm pretty sure I completely made their night - which totally made my night and all three of the kids are going out of their minds they are so excited about this trip. So we are all happy - well, except for husband, who is happy, but sad he can't go. Well, we couldn't make it perfect but we tried.

Of course, now I'm scrambling to finish all sorts of projects in the works before we board that train. And we will be out of the house for a full 10 days and arrive home early morning the 11th day - that's a long time (but when you factor in that's 27 hours each way in travel time, well, it doesn't seem that long really.

Anyway, I'm so excited I could burst. And I had to share with all of you. And to make it even more fun, we made the countdown trains this am. And my kids now think I'm the coolest mom who makes them the coolest things ever. =)