Gloomy sort of day

Rain again, so strange for Phoenix but nice to wake to a wet landscape except for the muddy backyard where Walt has dug out for the pavers for our memorial garden. Button tracks the mud into the house on a regular basis so I'm glad that we have tile downstairs & that beautiful wood upstairs!.

I talked to niece Brooke in Aus. on Saturday, they received the baby quilt safely & she & baby Holly [here with Gr. Grandfather] & proud Daddy Adam are doing well.

I began work Saturday on the two liturgical stoles for our visiting African Bishop. I only found out about it Friday night which gives me a week to complete, rather short notice but I managed to find the materials Saturday & worked on them Sunday during Superbowl. I have one almost finished as of 1 a.m. this morning & my friend Susan is helping me out with applique's for the second stole. I have yet to decide what to do for the breast plates on this first one.

I have the borders on my CC mystery , pictured with very cute doggie. It won't be quilted for a week or so, I have a couple of others to get on the LA first & I wanted to wait till after Nichole has visited. Nichole Webb is an internationally known LA quilter, so very talented & also a gem of a lady! She is coming to the house next Monday to give Gale & me some more instruction.

I feel so blessed to have this opportunity, Nichole is not only a beautiful artist but also a gifted teacher.

I finally gave in & saw my doctor last week over the "pain in the neck" & confirmed that I do indeed have a pinched nerve in my neck, three weeks plus now. I understand it could be months before it is completely resolved but at least the meds have reduced the symptoms to a dull roar! Just as well, I was really tired of the misery of it all & the limits to my activities.

This is a busy week, lots of meetings at church & it's also Ash Wednesday. We are finally all moved into our new church home after 2 1/2 years of "wandering in the desert" so to speak! We were all so very tired of the leased property & it's a huge blessing to have our own place again.

It has been Walt's second home the past month, all day every day as he works diligently to help get the renovations finished-he finally got all the offices moved in Friday.

There's still lots of finish work to do in the office building & the sanctuary, but there's less urgency about it now that we are all moved in- I'm hoping that Walt will be able to return to some sort of normal life after this week.

We're still waiting to hear when Matthew's memorial plaque will be ready for the park. The little tree seems to be suffering from transplant shock & I see no new growth so we will have to wait for warmer weather to see if it will survive. The native desert trees are very hardy [ this is a Palo Brea] otherwise it will be replaced with a new one.

It's time to take the Button dog for her daily 2 miles plus, it's really a cold windy day with intermittent rain showers, but I try not to ever complain about rain in the desert!