Actually, I was surprised that only about half the bags I brought back into the sewing room were UFO’s. That was a pleasant surprise — until I cleaned out from under the bed the other day so I could vacuum, and pulled out many, many more bags which also contain UFO’s!

With bags of UFO’s all over the daybed, I decided that I would finish one before I started a new wannabe project. Hey, I thought, why don’t I make this my mission this year. That is, finish at least one UFO before I start a new project — which I would then finish before moving on to more UFO’s and another new project. Well, we’ll see how that works out, especially since we all know that I have that disease, Startitis!

This day is Jan. 19th, and I’m proud to announce that I’ve finished four UFO’s and a new project!! So far, so good! Only 346 days to go in this new year!

These projects should be classified as WIPs (works in progress) because they were started last year just before our construction mess and Christmas. So, technically, they just had to be put away until I had time to finish them. But they’re done now!

The stocking was started to give to my sis with her gift inside. I had issues with it so it didn’t get done in time to give away. However, I have a head-start on next Christmas, right?

The brown item in the middle is a cover for a Kindle which will also go into the gifts for Christmas 2012. At lunch with my dear friend Carolyn yesterday, I showed this to her and she said that it looked like an owl. Well, by golly, I think she’s right. I hadn’t even noticed that!

The green neck warmer I made for myself. The store I work in gets really cold sometimes, and it’s surprising how much warmer I can be with something around my neck. I like it so much, that I’ve already found some more yarn to make another one. It’s been put into a wannabe bag.

This one was started last Summer or late Spring.

Our bathroom used to be decorated in outhouses when we first moved into our second mobile home in ’85. I bought this kit sometime around that time. (Yes, I hang onto stuff!) All the rest of my outhouses are in a box in the attic. Maybe I’ll bring them down and decorate this bathroom with them. Hmmmmm. . . . .

This baby afghan is the new project I started (and finished).

Michael’s had their big balls of yarn on sale. In fact, ALL the stores are having their yarns on sale and I’ve been fighting with myself not to buy any. So I figured that if I allow myself to buy a little, maybe I’ll get it out of my system so I don’t go “hog-wild” buying yarn. (I’ve been known to go “hog-wild”!)

I bought the yarn, came home, and started this baby afghan. I was just finishing up the outhouse, so the crocheting gave me a little break from the cross-stitching. This afghan turned out pretty nice, so it’ll go into the Fair in the CMN section and be given to a new mother for her baby. Even as I was crocheting it, I was wondering what little baby would be snuggled up in this afghan one of these days. Awwwwwww, what a nice thought.

There’s another UFO cross-stitch project that I started again last night. This one is several years old and it’s about time it got finished! More about this one later. . . . .

She was a simple woman, but seemed to be happy with her life. She was a teacher for several years after graduating high school. In fact, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse and a couple of her students were her sisters — my mom and another aunt.

She met and married her one and only husband, Paul, when she was 25 years old. They were married for five years when he caught pneumonia and died at the age of 30. They were the same age; born in the same year, just a few months apart. They never had any children and she never married again.

Paul’s parents were “rich” if that’s what you want to call it when someone owned many, many acres of land. They were farmers, lived in the country, and lived off their land. I wish I knew more about my aunt’s in-laws. I remember Leona’s mother-in-law. She lived “up the hill” from Leona’s house and we would go with Leona when she went to visit with “Ms Acuff” as Leona called her.

When Paul and Leona got married, his parents gave them many acres of land as a wedding gift. They acquired milking cows also, but I’m not sure how they came to have them. All I remember is that my aunt milked cows two times every day for as long as I can remember until she was in her 70′s.

My Grandma, my mom and Leona’s mother, came to live with Leona. I’m not sure of the circumstances that lead her to live there, but that’s the only place I ever remembered my Grandma living.

They always had a huge garden every year, canned much of it, and gave away the rest of what they didn’t eat. Nothing went to waste.

My aunt Leona raised turkeys from hatchlings every year for many years also. I remember going out to the outhouse which was located in the middle of the pen where the turkeys were kept and hollering, “gobble, gobble, gobble” at the top of my voice just to get them all to “gobble” for me. It was such fun! Then we’d run through the bunch of them and watch them scatter!

I’ve heard rumors that she at one time had hogs or pigs as well. But this is only a rumor because I can’t remember seeing them on her farm.

This lady was a hard worker! She could haul hay, milk cows, traipse through the woods looking for lost calves, work in the garden, repair the outbuildings, doctor the animals, and I could go on and on, as good as any man. She did all this through the coldest winters and hottest summers.

She put on a dress and went to church a couple of times a week, and did her paperwork and needlework in the evenings. What a lady! Can you see why she is one of my idols?

Yes, she did needlework. She used to knit, (which I didn’t know until much later) and made some beautiful doilies, which I’m honored and proud to own a couple now. She also crocheted and TATTED! When we went to “prayer meetin’” on Wed. nights at church, the ladies would sit in a circle after the meeting and visit and do their handwork. All the kids would be outside chasing each other and playing but I would be sitting at my aunt’s feet watching her fingers run that shuttle back and forth so fast it was a blur.

Finally one day I asked her if she would teach me to tat. She didn’t take me seriously, but after I bugged and bugged her about it, she took me to town and bought me a shuttle of my very own. She said, “This shuttle is expensive and if I buy this for you, then you have to learn to tat and not give up.” I promised her that I would.

If you’ve read my blog for a while now, you might recall my story of how I would take the shuttle with me to the barn to watch her milk cows and work on my tatting. Going through her things after she passed away, we came across an old tin that had tatting thread, pieces of work, and a shuttle or two in it. Some of this thread and tatted pieces were so dirty, I’m thinking that she must have saved my earliest pieces and these must be the ones I did!

It seems that she loved doing the tatting more than any other type of handwork. As she got older and arthritis came to visit her fingers, she had to advance to a larger shuttle and bigger thread.

My sis and I got her interested in putting her tatting in the local fair to see if she could win ribbons. And she sure did! Not just blue ribbons, but Champion ribbons as well! She sold several of her big doilies for over a hundred dollars each. She tatted up until a year or so of her death.

This project is one that I’ve been putting together and working on for several years. It’s finally finished and is now hanging in my new sewing room. It’s a tribute to my Aunt Leona — my “other mom”.

If you just want to skip all the dramatics and get to the bottom line, then you won’t hurt my feelings if you scroll through all of this and get to the last picture. But I’ll try to be brief with the text and include a lot of pics.

Back to the point where I was in shock because of the “nook” not being “right”. The constructions guys came the next day and got all the siding up.

The electrician came that day also, and put in two outlets on either side of the room.

The next day, 12/9, Jim came out to take the “blankets” off the patio and sidewalk.

LOVE my little sidewalk out to my little shop out back!

The roofing guys came and finished the roof. I’m not sure what this finish is, but they say it won’t leak. It’s some kind of rubber top.

A little break from construction. . . . . . .

We had another birthday. This is our oldest Grandson. He turned 21 this year! It’s still hard to believe even after we’ve let it wrap around our brain all this time. What young man wouldn’t love a plate of brownies,

and money, of course!

Our son had a birthday on the same day, but he lives in KC so he just got a card and check sent to him. I forgot to mail it though, so it was a few days late.

OK, back to construction.

Back in Sept., I was planning our Christmas party for Dec. 17th, which would work out better for everyone. So when we decided on this construction, I told George, the owner of the company, that I wanted it done by the 16th because we would be having company for Christmas and since this was our guest room, we would have to have it done by then. His response? “No problem!”

Wellllll, we had a problem! It wasn’t going to be done by then. In fact, on 12/13 the guys came to insulate and put up the drywall.

The next day, they came to do the mudding. THIS was supposed to be done in two days!?!

The guy’s son worked on this ALL day. It looked really nice, but boy howdy, he sure was slow!

I had to tear back some of the wall paper so they would have enough room to “patch” the mud into the new wall.

On 12/15, the gutter guys came to put up the soffit and guttering. They asked me if I wanted it blue to match the rest of the house or white to match the sunroom. I told them blue because it’s part of the house. DUH! I went shopping while they worked. When I got home, I found out that they had used white! Why did they even ask me if they were going to use white all along? They even already had it in their trailer!

The drywall guys came back to finish and finesse the mudding on the 15th.

They said they would be back the next morning to texture the ceiling, sand the mudding and clean up. No, that wouldn’t do. Our guests were coming that evening! My plans had to change regarding over-night guests, so the two little boys would be sleeping on their foam chair/beds on the floor in the room. I didn’t want plaster dust filling the air. I told them that they would have to come back Mon. to finish. No, they assured me that they would be able to get it sanded and clean up without making a big dust mess. Why do they even talk to me when they’ve made up their minds to do what they want anyway!!!!

Needless to say, my stress level has been rising constantly every day. WHY did we start this project in the Fall when we had similar problems last year with this same company? WHY did they wait so long to start this project in the first place? WHY are they insisting on working on this when they know I’m trying to get ready for a party? WHY? WHY? WHY?

My breaking point was at the breaking point! So unlike me, I yelled at the poor guy. I let it all out — even the fact that they didn’t build the little extension the way it was supposed to be, etc. etc. etc. The poor guy was looking at me like I was having a complete break-down right then and there. I really felt bad later, but on the other hand, surprisingly better!

Sorry, I guess I still get a little stressed when I think about it. The wounds are still fresh and tender.

George called me later to tell me that he was going to send his daughter over about 5:30 the next evening to clean the room, mop the floor, etc. so we would be able to use it. First I thought, “but that’s when our company will be getting here.” But I thanked him and told him that I would appreciate it. (At this point, I was grateful for any help I could get.) He said “That’s ok, I want to help you — you’re a good customer.” I had to laugh at the “you’re a good customer” part. It didn’t sound all that sincere. The drywall guy probably told him about my “blow up”.

The next morning, bright and early, the father and son were here again to finish. The dad got the ceiling done. He said he would try to match the existing ceiling texture as best as he could. Wow! It was awesome!

It looks dark in places because it was still wet. But after it dried, it looked just like the old ceiling.

The daughter didn’t get here until 6:30. Luckily, the son and family decided to stop for supper, so they were a little late getting here. I was in the middle of baking pumpkin pies. Meanwhile, George’s daughter broke a light bulb out of the ceiling fixture when she was trying to clean it. We had another bulb. Hubby had to use a pair of pliers to get the old one out of the socket. She left about an hour later, just minutes before the kids arrived.

We had a good day for our Christmas party. It was beautiful weather and everyone seemed to have a great time. Three members of our family didn’t get to be here. We missed them terribly! I took lots of pics, but I’ll only put a few on here. . . . .

The next day, the guests had to leave. Grandma gets hugs and Grandpa gets handshakes.

Back to the construction . . . .

We were responsible for the floor. George told us that we needed to have the flooring ready by the 19th. So we bought it but the estimates we got to install it were way out of line we thought. I’d put the flooring down in the sunroom several years ago. Since Christmas was pretty much over for us, I told Hubby that I would attempt to put the flooring down. When George found out that I would be doing it, he called a guy he knows and the guy gave us an estimate way within reason.

Now, another WHY. We were wondering why this guy was so much cheaper than the other estimates we got. Here’s my opinion. We were reaching the deadline for the construction according to the contract. I think George thought that it would probably take me a long time to get the flooring down and they wouldn’t be able to get the trim done in time for the deadline. So he either paid the difference to his guy or promised him more jobs, or something. That’s ok. It worked out pretty good for us!

So Mon. morning, 12/19, he shows up and works all day. It looked great!

George came about half-way through the job and talked to Hubby about the trim. NOW GET THIS! He said that he would have to order the trim and it wouldn’t be ready until the middle of the next week! Hubby told him that it didn’t have to exactly match, that we could use some left-over trim from the bedroom construction, that we just wanted to get it done. But George started to argue with him that “it just wouldn’t look right, etc.” This time Hubby lost it. He “yelled” (I can’t imagine my Hubby yelling at anyone), and told him that this was our house, our money, and we just wanted this project to be done!!

George called later and told Hubby that he “found” a place here in town that would make our trim to match and it could be ready tomorrow! Another WHY. Why didn’t he have this trim already “ordered” and waiting for us when we were ready for it? Why didn’t he know about this place before now? How long has he been in this business?

The flooring guy came the next day and put on the trim. He had to do a little jog where the walls didn’t quite meet. (Another “oops” done by the concrete guy.)

This finishes the work by the construction company. We paid the flooring guy his money and, per George, gave him the final check for George as well. George didn’t want to come around here anymore, I’m guessing. Another WHY! (I think I know the answer to that one!)

Hopefully this guy is out of our lives forever!

Now the work starts for me. Yea!!!

The next week was a blur. I would walk in the sewing room and just stare at the hole — kind of numb remembering all the hassles we had to go through, and it didn’t even turn out the way I’d been dreaming of it for ten years or so.

Sis and I went out to see our other sister who’s in a nursing home now. She was pleasantly surprised to see us.

Christmas Day came. We went over to visit Hubby’s dad. Hubby’s sister was there and later his uncle showed up.

We had a nice visit. His dad has trouble bending so he showed us his contraption for putting on his socks.

He’s quite the inventor!

Finally on the 29th, I made myself start painting on the extension. The wallpaper I had put on the walls when we first moved here is pink and blue. It’s still in pretty good condition so I wanted to leave it and go with these colors. So I picked a pretty pink to paint the walls. It matches some of the pink in the wallpaper. It’s a little brighter than I’d thought it would be. But pretty! I like pink! And since this is MY sewing nook, I get to have the color of my choice, right? It looks pinker because of the paper on the floor.

There’s a lot of work to be done so I’m not going to let myself get stressed out about it. I decided to take my time. Maybe I’ll get used to the way it looks — off-center! (Sorry, I need to put my big girl panties on and get over this!)

Grandson #4 wasn’t here with us for our Christmas party, but he came down to spend Christmas break with his dad and brother. We decided to have another party in his honor on the 30th. I’d spent the day making chili and potato soup in crockpots and more goodies to munch on.

I found the neatest recipe for fudge. REALLY easy and fast! And good! Use a container of frosting and a 12 oz. pkg. of chocolate chips, (I used chocolate frosting and milk chocolate chips) melt them in a bowl in the microwave, stir them until smooth, (then I added walnuts) and smooth into an 8 x 8 pan. Stick in the fridge until firm and enjoy! Try it, you’ll like it!

After we stuffed our faces with all kinds of good stuff, we watched M. open his gifts.

Then we played some games.

We had fun! Those guys are awesome!

Parties over, painting done, New Year here, time to work on this room and get it finished! The next step was to put up the wallpaper where it had been taken down. Since I knew I would be needing it again, I hung on to the left-over paper all these years. There was just enough to do the two partial walls and the top of the extension.

The next day, I trimmed the wallpaper around the opening and put up the wallpaper trim next to the ceiling. (Just barely had enough! Whew!) (The blue tape was holding down what had been pulled up and it was curled. It came off the next day and looks great now!) OK, I’m starting to get really excited about this room!

The rest of the floor trim and the trim around the doors had been left unpainted all this time. So I started moving things into the “nook” so I could get to the trim to paint it all white to match the “nook”. Yes, that’s material all over the floor. I was moving the shelves of fabric when I took this pic. I LOVE the moving and organizing part!

The next couple of days I was busy painting and moving stuff. The painting is finally finished and it’s beginning to look pretty neat! I found some curtains that are striped white and pink. Perfect! Hubby helped me put up the mini-blinds.

Here’s a view from “the nook. . . . .

and from the doorway. . . .

I have a lot of “stuff”. It took several days to get all my “pretties” on the walls. My thimble collection. . . .

My cats and mice. . . .

and all the rest. . . .

I like my knitting chair. . . .

My sis gave this to me for Christmas. How appropriate for my new sewing room! It’s 3-D because her bonnet and booty is stuffed and stick out. How cute! I love it!

It’s now finished and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Here’s the “before” pics. . . . .

Yep, definitely better!

Resolutions? Well, it’s hard for me to make resolutions. (And keep them! ) I’m a pretty organized person, so I don’t need to make that popular resolution. I could lose a little weight (about five pounds), but I don’t really need to make that one either. I work on the floor at Wally World so I get a LOT of exercise at work, so that would be a wasted resolution as well.

But getting caught up on my UFO projects? NOW we have a winner! Yes, this is definitely my weakness! My UFO’s change shape, become different materials, and get done eventually. But in the meantime, more UFO’s appear from nowhere to occupy my space.

It would be interesting to go through all of my projects again to see what’s not there and what replaced them during this last year. (Wait. How can I see what’s not there? Well, you know what I mean.) It would take me a week to go through them. But I will. Because I’m a gluten for punishment. Because I like to be organized. Because a lot of these UFO’s are projects that I really would like to have done.

If ONLY I could leave new projects alone! But I can’t. I have a disease. It’s called “start-itis” and it’s incurable. So I have to live with it. Forever.

So when a New Year starts? I’ll have the same resolution again. To finish my UFO’s! Oh, will it ever end? (Gosh, I hope not!)

Let me go back a few weeks. Back to the day that I last wrote about the construction. It was Dec. 7, the day that I met my friend Carolyn for lunch. The guys were here working as I was writing on this blog and they were getting ready to break through the wall.

It sounded like they were tearing the house down with all the noise, hammering, sawing, etc. that was going on. At one point they had to turn our electricity off because the wall they were getting rid of had an electrical outlet in it. Finally they left, and Hubby and I sneaked in to see what it looked like.

I stood there with my mouth open and tears welled up in my eyes. It wasn’t a happy moment. See the left side of the room where the small wall is sticking out? Oh wait, there is no wall! There’s supposed to be, but there isn’t. They cut my wall out!! Let me explain.

This extension was supposed to be centered in the middle of the wall they just took out. It’s too far over and extends out from the side of the room! What did they do?!? They didn’t do it the way it was supposed to have been done or the way that I wanted it that’s for sure.

I was devastated. I’ve pictured this little extension in my head almost as long as we’ve lived in this house — at least ten years. I kept my lunch date with my friend, but I’m afraid I wasn’t much company. I complained the whole time about this mess-up.

The rest of the evening, I thought and thought about it. Evidently, the guy who poured the footing and foundation “forgot” what I wanted. When the construction guys come to work a day, then don’t show up again for several days or even a week later, it’s no wonder they forget what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re the construction guys, so you just assume that they know what they’re doing. Looking back, I wish we had kept on top of what Jim, the foundation guy, was doing. But who knew that we would have to play construction police?!

After much thought and running different scenarios in my head, I’ve decided that I won’t be putting the daybed in the extension. It would be up against the wall which would be unhandy when we have to use it for guests. Besides that, the room already looks “off-center” and having the daybed to one side of the room would just make it look more “off-center”. Putting the sewing machine into the curved-out section might be pretty neat. I do LOVE the windows! I could sew and look out into the backyard and watch the birds and squirrels play. Hey, this is so crazy, it just might work! This will be my new sewing nook!

Everyone is having a wonderful morning with their families — opening gifts, going to church, preparing a big meal, enjoying the warm feelings of having family close. It’s just another day for Hubby and me. We had our family get-together last Sat. It’s kind of sad in a way. While I was at work at Wal-Mart yesterday, watching everyone rushing around trying to finish getting last-minute gifts and food for their big meal for today, I felt left out because our family celebration is already over. It’s just not the same as having it on the special day, I guess.

I’ve always loved the last-minute crunching of Christmas. Especially when EVERYONE is doing it at the same time. Call me crazy, but I really enjoy it. So to have it over with a week early and than watch everyone else getting ready — well, it was a bit depressing.

Except for the last few years, Christmas has always been a big family deal to me. When I was growing up, Christmas Day was a BIG day at my Mom’s house. With a family of five children, the grandchildren’s numbers growing every year, her mother and sister, my mom’s house was hopping with activity. I loved it!

Eventually we all moved out, got married, and had children of our own. But every Christmas (I don’t remember ever missing one) our families would gather at my mom’s house for a huge family dinner. Hubby and I would have Christmas Eve with the In-Laws and all of his family, then Christmas morning at our house for our three children, then gather up food, gifts, and the kids and we’d all wind up at my Mom’s house. Everybody brought food and gifts. The children would play while the women got the meal ready, and the men sit around talking about whatever men talk about. Mom’s table was FULL of food. We fixed the kids their plates and got them settled down, then the men would get their plates, then the women would gather around the table and we’d all eat and talk and eat and talk! What fun!!

Through the years as everyone’s children grew up, got married, and started lives of their own, our big family get-togethers would slowly dwindle in size. Mom got to the point where she couldn’t do the big dinners any more even though we girls would do most of the work. Everyone started their own traditions as families grew.

While our three children’s families grew, we had Christmas here at our house most of the time. We were moving all over the state back then, so it was hard to have a year-to-year tradition going on. But we tried to get the family together as much as we could. Oh how I loved it when we were all together! I guess it brings back the old memories of those huge family celebrations at my mom’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy and blessed that our little family was able to get together a week ago. But here it is Christmas Day and I’m sitting at the computer. Hubby and I will spend the day by ourselves. It’s quiet and peaceful. But I’d trade it, in a minute, for a hectic day with lots of people roaming around, snacking on goodies that I’ve slaved over for days to make, and getting all worn out just from all the visiting and family fun again. Celebrating a week ahead is just not the same as celebrating ON Christmas Day, I guess.

It’s like the old saying, “you can’t go home again.” But we still have our memories! Merry Christmas Everyone!

The worker, Joe, was concerned that the ceiling of the room would be shorter at the front window than at the other side. But I assured them that that’s the way I wanted it. We won’t be using that part of the room anyway — it’s just going to house the daybed with a tall table behind it to hold a lamp, etc.

So we were a little confused when we saw that the roof wasn’t slanting hardly at all. It looks like it’s coming straight out. Hubby got inside it last night, and he can stand up in the front where the window will be with room to spare.

These guys aren’t the ones that talked to us about the room being shorter. They acted like they didn’t know anything about the conversation we had with Joe about the room. But Hubby talked to the guys this morning, and they said that it was slanted three degrees, and that’s enough for the rain to drain off. So I guess they know what they’re doing. It just isn’t going to look like the “lean-to” that I was hoping for.

The guys got here this morning about 8:30 and started right in. They’ve put in a couple of the windows and are breaking through to the room as I’m writing this. We’ve had to shut the door because it’s getting COLD in there!

I’m meeting my friend Carolyn for lunch today, then off shopping for Christmas gifts this afternoon. I’m anxious to see how much they get done today while I’m gone.

One of the workers, Joe, told us that they would probably cut through to the room today sometime. That means that they’ll have to put the windows in and get the roof on this morning. They just got here as I’m writing this and it’s almost 10:00! I don’t know, maybe they’re faster than I think they’ll be. The windows aren’t even here yet.

Since I haven’t cleaned out the room yet, I began to panic when Joe said that they would probably cut through this afternoon. So I asked to take off work early last night to come home and work on it.

I have a lot of little stuff to find a new (temporary) home for and hubby helped me take the daybed apart and move it to our bedroom. Then I had to move the two bookcases of fabric out because they were against the wall that will be cut into. The whole process only took a couple of hours. I’m glad I didn’t have to do all that after getting home from work at 11:30 last night.

This morning I covered all the rest of the furniture, etc., with drop cloths because they will create a LOT of dust when they do their sawing through.

I’m feeling a little sorry for them because the weather has really turned nasty. The temps have dropped into the 20′s — the coldest this season and it even snowed a little last night! I just can’t help thinking of the whole month of Oct. when we had such beautiful weather and they didn’t come for even one day during all that time!

We have a little wood-burning stove in the back yard. They were wondering if they could burn some of the scrap wood in it. So the three of them are taking a few minutes to stand around the fire. I was thinking about taking a pic of them, but that might embarrass them to see me taking their picture.

Hubby fixed a big pot of coffee and will take it out to them. That just might hit the spot!

When I get home from work tonight, I’m hoping that I’ll see some big progress in the construction.

Well, I knew that this little “project” would take clear up to Christmas to get done! We’re having Christmas at our house this year, so now I have to hustle around to get stuff moved in and out of this room in addition to clean and decorate and bake and shop and wrap presents to be ready for Christmas.

There’s no one to blame but myself though. (But then again, when you sign a contract at the last of Sept. for a project this small, you’d think that a construction company could get on the ball and have it done in a few weeks.) We shouldn’t have started another project like this until Spring. Will I ever learn? But hopefully, this WILL be the last thing we do to the house, (knock on wood) so I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

It was a beautiful day in the Ozarks yesterday, however, and we got the tree up and some lights around the house put up, and it’s beginning to look like Christmas!

He does good work. We like what he does.

Now we’re waiting for the construction crew to get here. It’s almost noon today and there’s no show as I’m writing this. We’re sure there’s a good excuse but it isn’t the weather. It’s a beautiful, sunny day and 50 degrees right now. Well, the waiting game continues . . . . .