Wow, crazy families . For the most part our family is close, except my two siblings when it comes to me. As for my brother it's a no skin off my nose kind of thing and when he gets over himself we'll chat again as is our usual pattern. My sister on the other hand... yeah, it's really not a punishment at all for her to not be talking to me . We have a love-hate relationship where we just love to hate each other.

But as for the rest of my family I'm super excited because it's getting closer and closer to the time for me to blow out of GA and head on up to good ol' NH. And it seems we'll be taking along my grandson as well as he should be back with his mom before we go. . So I guess my mom and I are glutton for punishment in bringing two very high strung and active kids (aged 2 and 4) on a 20 hour car trip, but at least once we're there I'll have more family members than I can shake a stick at to keep the tots from too much trouble as they run amok in the white mountain countryside.

We just started a bit more of the trip preparation today by hitting up the Goodwills around here. They like to do 50 cent sales by colored tags on clothes so it seemed a great time to gather up some things for the kids to wear and destroy while up there. Serviceable over fashion was what we were going for but still got some really cute and hearty looking finds for both the kids. And of course I had to stock up on some more books. The Goodwill in town had a bunch of books that looked brand new! Including a hardcover version of Charlotte's Web that the spine hadn't even been broken in yet on. And best of all, they were only 39 cents a piece. So the library is growing quickly for the grandbabies. Now I have to get grandpa to make them a nice little book case to hold all the books.

Between the Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and Dollar Tree, at least the GBs will never be able to say "there's nothing to read". And I shouldn't have to worry about overdue fees at the local library, not that I do anyways since my friend is the director, but hey I believe in paying my dues, even my past dues... I just wonder when the Friends of the Library is going to be doing another book fair. They take donated books and old books from the library and sell them off, sometimes if you can hold off until the last day and the final hours they'll sell off the books by paper bags full for $1.00. Much slimmer pickings, but when you think of the number of books you can cram into a paper bag .... Instant home library.

But I'm sure in NH too, we'll be hitting up tons of book used book stores. They're everywhere up there so my mom and I can never miss the chance to check them out. And with 2 GBs who are just starting to enter the world of literacy, it's going to be that much more a treat to go scouring the shelves looking for old favorites and some new tales to wow the kiddies. And we also can't forget to hit up the fabric warehouse up there!!!! It's like Joann's on steroids, they have everything you could even think of and for a mere fraction of what you would pay at any of the chain stores. Not just fabric either, they have bins and bins of yarn, threads, notions galore, cross-stitch and embroidery patterns, and of course pattern books a plenty. Including tons of old... and I mean we're talking antique pattern "magazines" for knitting and crochet and even housekeeping, some of the things we saw last time went back to the late 1800's. It is my heaven on earth. Especially since it doesn't matter if the book was printed in 1892 or 1992 it's the same price.

Though given the musty smell inside, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the fabric was from 1892 either. But that's the fun of it all, searching for those really cool fabrics and notions that they just don't make anymore. Or at least not like they used to, sure you can always find the cheap knock offs but it's hard to find a bolt of material that looks like 1960's retro mod, because it really is a bolt of 1960's mod material.

I would be dancing with excitement right now... but honestly, it's too hot to dance. It got up to a 110 degrees this week and that's not including the heat index. I have spent much of the week hiding in my bathroom, because it's the coolest room in the house. Run a bit of cold water through the shower and then just curl up on the stone floor until it starts to warm up too much again, rinse and repeat. And yet still I've been slammed all week with migraines and debilitating pain. The GB and I are counting down the days... her to learn numbers and me in curiosity over whether I can survive that long.