Huzzahh!

I finished the quilt! And today I leave to go to Pris and Dan's at 1pm which means the beginning of rest.
Mum and dad don'thave to go to the English camp that they were going to have to at the end of this week, so that is a relief for them. They'll be able to take a few days to catch their breath after all this craziness that they've been through the last coupla months.

Things at the office are progressing well. We're not quite finished yet and I think we'll have to send the five books we are prepping for print by train to meet the guy who takes them to the print house (instead of sending them with him now--he leaves town today at noon), but that is fairly normal, so no big worries there. I think the office will be a little disappointed not to be able to send them with him directly now as that is what they have been working so hard on--they even worked Saturday and late last night to try to make the deadline!
But being the bad guy that I am, I keep finding little issues that need to be fixed before they go on and so that slows things down, esp. because some of these "little issues" are time consuming to fix. We've had a few battles of the will over things that I feel need to be fixed and they feel are just a matter of opinion. One of the difficulties of working in another culture is that I don't know if I am just perceiving things as a Westerner or if the issues are legitimate. It's been a bit stressful, but I feel more relaxed today, probably because I know I am going away and can hand over whatever is left to my poor mom! :( Hopefully there won't be much left for her.

Thank you for your prayers over these days, I have been quite stressed, but God keeps reminding me that I just need to "cast all my cares upon Him". And each time I do and the burden lifts again.

Only Slightly Insane

I think. Although I feel completely overwhelmed. These courses are really getting to me. We're trying to finish up five books to be ready for print by the time I leave on Tuesday at noon. Normally we only prepare two books for print at a time. So, this is a little crazy...or a lot crazy.
It's just that the office goes on holiday on August 1 for a month so we would really like to finish these books up before then. In addition to that, we have to send them to someone else to take to the printing house in Russia and we actually have someone here who is going to visit that man, but the are leaving on Tuesday afternoon. So we would really like to get these books finished by then. Naturally, we have actually been working on some of these books for a long time and we had wanted to finish them earlier, but because of some uncontrollable delays we're still trying to finalize them now.
The other two books are a different situation because the one is very small and required very little editing on our part, but still requires formatting and a cover to be designed and all those other lovely little details. And the second one we are not allowed to change the content on at all, but we still had to reformat it and create a cover and things like that too and there are a lot of issues with the reformating on that one.
Please just pray for us. Some of the staff is coming in tomorrow (Saturday) to work on these so that hopefully we can make our deadlines. We're all reaching the end of our ropes with these courses, some of them we've been working on since January (and for me longer), normally we only work on a course for three to four months. Pray that we'll be able to make the deadlines, but that we won't sacrifice quality for speed. I would rather miss the deadline and put out a good quality work, than make the deadline and put out something half-baked.
And pray for me as I need to get ready to go to the States for three weeks to get my visa renewed and visit family. I leave Tuesday at noon, and will go to visit Pris and her family for a day to unwind before I fly out on Thursday morning at the crack of dawn. I need to pack and make sure that everything is lined up for my visa and the other things I need to take care of before going there. We also have the Ukrainian missionaries to Russia visiting right now for an accountability session and there are some issues going on there so I am feeling that too as are my parents. And our office needs to go over to visit with them on Monday, plus on Monday or Tuesday morning I am supposed to meet with an artist who is trying out for us and I also need to still make a final decision about whether or not to hire the Ukrainian translator who is trying out for us. And of course, I am heavily involved in all the little decisions that need to be made about these courses we are producing.
So, I'm pretty stressed. Tomorrow I need to pack and wrap things up at home and still work on the quilt :), but I may also need to come into the office to help them out here. I'm not sure what Sunday will look like for me, probably a lot like Saturday with extra sleep. Then Monday is finalizing everything and making the judgement call on whether I think our quality is up to par or if we need to give it another shot, plus visiting with the missionaries for a few hours and possibly seeing the artist and deciding about the translator. Tuesday morning I need to make sure everything is packed because I have to take my suitcase to the office with me for a couple of hours before I head to the bus station to head out. Then hopefully I'll be able to breath a sigh of relief and just breath for a bit.

Happy-ness!

My niece was born today! Well, yesterday. Time change makes things so confusing!
Sam and Melissa went to the hospital yesterday morning (for them) and after just a few hours their daughter was born. Apparently everything went really well and the baby is healthy and weighed in at 9 pounds and 7 ounces.
I'm really excited about my newest niece and relieved that she has arrived and that it all went well. And in just 9 days I'll get to see her! :D

Still kickin'

...I think.
The way I feel right now I am not sure waht is up and what is down. I don't even know where to start blogging, I can't believe it's been a week in between posts! What's happening to me!
Deep breath.
Okay, update on the cats, since I know you are all holding your breath about them. ;) The dark one brought her kittens to visit last week and now they would all like to move in. The answer remains, "NO".
In other breaking news, I am moving out of my apartment in the middle of October. I'll be moving into and taking over my parents' house. I'm fine with that, but not really looking forward to the actual moving part of things. I have a fair amount of furniture that I'll need to either get rid of or put into storage since mum and dad's place is already fully furnished. I was hoping that my landlords would buy the kitchen from me (all the cabinets are mine--actually everything, except the kitchen sink, the faucets are mine though). They were interested but said that right now they couldn't afford it because of some other business commitments that they have. Please pray that between now and September they decide they can afford it. My last month of rent there would cover almost half of the cost. And for me it would be a big boon, of course, not to have to move it all out.
Besides all that, which just got sorted out this morning, the office is swamped. We are trying to get three courses prepped for printing by the middle of next week and it just means a lot of work for me and for everyone else. On the other hand, it would be such a relief to have these done before I leave in the middle of next week! And of course, I am trying to get ready to leave as well...

New Staff

As you can see, we have some new office members. At least they think so!
One of the girls started putting food out for the "strays" a few months ago and now these two at least have adopted us. They frequently are at our door or can be heard outside, sometimes they try and come in through the windows. The dark one, however, is more likely to try the front door.
It's kind of fun to have them around, but sometimes annoying too when you have to constantly kick them out. I'm curious to see what will happen in winter. I have already made it clear to the office that they are not going to become indoor cats!

We also have a couple of people who are trying out for some positions in our office. Ira is trying out for the position of Ukrainian translator for our courses. Up until now we have only translated the courses into Russian, but we are wanting to translate several into Ukrainian so we need to find a good Ukrainian translator. Unfortunately the don't grow on trees. Ira is an okay translator, but she doesn't have a lot of experience and she has not yet acquired the "feel" for what she is translating. We have very high standards and we are trying to help her reach those standards, but it isn't easy. Please pray for her, that it would "click". I'm not sure we can teach this to her, but am praying that it is so.
We are also in the process of hiring an artist. That isn't actually a position in our office, more of a project based job, but something we desperately need as well. I interviewed a lady last Thursday and she came in again to show me some of her work this morning and I am giving her a try, but we'll see... Her previous work was for children and it makes a big difference of course when you are drawing for adults. I'm hoping she'll be able to make the adjustment. But again, would appreciate your prayers for that.
We are also still looking for a second Ukrainian translator...

Detail Quilting

Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing some detail quilting on the quilt top. I am hoping against hope to complete it this weekend, but for now I'll show you a couple of pictures so you can see how it has progressed.
The first two pictures are essentially the same, but while I prefer the first, the second actually show ups some of the quilting better.
Then you can see the detail on a couple of the leaves. The first leaf is my brother, Matthew's leaf, on the tree and the second is just miscellaneous/ancestor. You can also see a little of the overall quilting pattern in the second photo. Both the straight lines--representing ground, and the swirls--representing air or the wind.

Family

It's hard to believe that mum and dad will be back on Sunday. They have been gone for a long time, but that also means that it is the middle of July already! That hardly seems possible. In three weeks today I'll go to the States to visit my family and renew my visa. I can't wait! But at the same time I don't feel ready for it!
I still have a lot of work to do on the quilt and with mum and dad coming back this week I know that things will get really busy here at the office as well. So it'll be a busy three weeks. Thankfully, I don't have to go back to the dentist again until after I return from the States. I was there this week after spending the weekend with Priscilla's family and I picked up my new retainer. It's painful. In the two weeks that I've had my braces off they have of course shifted some, so the retainer is real fun. :|
It was nice to spend a couple of days with Pris' family again. Wearing by the time I made it back, but still so enjoyable. It's nice to be able to get to know some of the people there in the church and to be able to see the kids more than once or twice a year. Almost makes me feel a part of their lives.
I'm really looking forward to visiting the boys in August. I'll get to see my nieces and spend time with my sis. It'll be nice to get out of my environment and relax with them all there (as much as one can with an infant about :) ). It'll be good.

More Quilt :D

This is one of my favorite pictures. I put extra batting behind the trees to give them a little more body. The large trees I did the trunks and tops separately, but with the little maple I cut out the extra batting all in one piece. To attach the batting to the trees I did some extra quilting. Unfortunatley it isn't really visible in the pictures, but each tree trunk has its own "bark" design quilted into it.After that I sewed the trees on to the centerpiece, then added the extra bits, like the branches and extra foliage as well as the leaves and flowers.
You can see I just have a normal machine. Actually it is really old, probably at least 30--my age! :D I'm really old. Okay, back on track, so the machine only has straight and zig zag stitches, but this quilt has taught me a lot more about the machine and what it can do. Unfortunately, I am also have some trouble with the machine and can only use it for 30-45 minutes at a time right now because the pedal keeps overheating. I'm hoping to order a new one, but that won't be in time to help with this quilt.
Here are the trees, after they have been attached to the quilt. Right now I have progressed quite far beyond this although you almost wouldn't know it. I've quilted all of the white background and added an outline of each of the trees as well as a little more quilting of the trunks. I'm just getting ready to start quilting the foliage. Then, provided I don't run out of time--panic!--I'll quilt the flowers and the leaves a little before moving on to the borders. I need to have this quilt ready in four weeks so that I can take it with me when I go to visit Sam and Melissa. Time is running out! And of course, I still need to sew mum and dad's curtains too. NO PRESSURE! :D

Migraines

In general I am have much less migraines that I was earlier this year, however this last week has been a doozy as I've had a mild migraine the whole week. Medicine isn't helping. It's just a little discouraging after having had a couple of good months and thinking I had it figured out.
But we'll see. The Lord can work in this too.