Slow Stitching This Time, but Good News!

I am finally getting around to updating you on my stitching and other things going on. Once again I have fallen behind on this job! I do so intend to update every week, but a lot of things have been happening and I just didn't get to my blog. Honestly, this month, I have not spent much time on the computer at all.

I was working on "Life's Little Tangles" and everything had been going great on it. Then, on Election Day somehow a hole got into the material. I was  absolutely devastated when it happened and have been raking my brain with ways to fix the hole instead of having to scrap what I have stitched thus far. First I took it and a piece of the same kind of material and count to a friend who sews alterations to see if she could put a piece in the hole. She did, and it looked fine, but when I got to the area of the piece of material it started fraying badly. I went ahead and pulled out her patch and frogged some of what I had stitched and have made a patch that I am temporarily attaching with cross stitch needles and as I get to the area will remove the needles one by one. One needle atop, one on bottom and one on each side for a total of four needles. This was the progress before the hole happened. The hole is actually in the area of page four, but I am debating doing much more on page three unless I can make certain my patch job will work. I am doing this over two and I know the fabric I originally purchased had a four inch margin on all sides and that the width with page three done is almost 200 with the total width being 450, so if I had to I'm guessing I could scrap what I did and do the picture over one instead. The problem is I remember trying to start this over one and I was uncertain how it looked. Maybe that was just because I am new at HAED projects? I don't know. We'll have to see how this goes. I want to do this pattern so badly!!

Between when I was waiting for "Life's Little Tangles" back from Deena and stitching a bit on it, I started a baby bib for Wes's sister, Katie. I am working on the fifth animal right now. It is an elephant done in DMC 818. If I remember right, there are a total  of seven animals. Most of them are wearing diapers. I thought it was cute. I hope that she likes it. From what I understand she is due to have her baby this spring.

Good news on the work front! Which is a big reason why my progress is so small this month. But honestly, I am NOT complaining. We need me to work! I got a call a couple weeks ago from my in-home care client's husband. Remember, she went into the nursing home in mid=October due to severe weakness. Well, she came home the weekend before Thanksgiving! This means my four days on, four days off with her is back. Also this month on the house cleaning business front I have gained some more clients. I pray we can get the girls nice presents for Christmas!

Another bit of good news! Wes will be home before Christmas. Not sure the exact day, but know it will be before the holiday. He was originally hoping to be home for Thanksgiving, but that didn't work out.

A stitching friend, Mel, in Calgary Canada, has a giveaway going on right now.. You can see her blog and the details of the giveaway by going to: http://epicstitchin g.blogspot. com

Mel is one of the stitchers in a group I belong to that encouraged me to do the HAED pattern.

I was talking with one of my nieces out in California and asked her if she'd like me to do a cross stitch for her. She is a sophomore in High School and plays on the Varsity Basketball team. I told her I had a pattern of a cat with a basketball and wondered if she'd like me to do it for her. She said yes, then asked if I could make the cat the school colors. They are dark blue, light blue and white. I told her that would not be a problem, so now I have another project yet to do!

Rachel's arm has me worried. The doctor took the cast off and put a splint on. She goes back in mid December for a re-check, but her dad and I are worried that it just isn't healing. When she takes the splint off, which she is suppose to do, she complains of massive pain.

Everything and everyone else is doing great!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Once again, even though I have not been updating my blog (shame on me!) I have been stitching! The picture in the upper left I scanned in the middle of October. Cannot remember the exact date. The other picture of  "Life's Little Tangles" was scanned early yesterday evening. Then I began working on page three. The first column on page three is only three wide, as opposed to the usual ten. I am going to stitch that column completely from bottom to top and then work my way down from top to bottom on page three as I did on pages one and two. I am nearly done with that three wide column. I have figured out that when I do have that column done, I will have nearly three hundred stitches done on page three. I post a picture with page three on it next time.

I  also went ahead and finished the beading and French knots on "Zoo Babies". You may remember I started this one earlier this year to give to my niece for my Great Nephew, Caleb. I felt badly because the picture I did for his sister's room, a "Precious Moments" pattern, was quite a bit bigger, but my niece assures me that it is great and she loves it. Danielle had requested that I stitch a project with a giraffe in it for Caleb's room. I went through the books I had meant for young children and this was what I found.

I actually completed "Henry Basset" a few years ago. I did it because I love Basset Hounds. When I was growing up we had Basset Hounds and I loved them very much. Anabelle was the Basset we had when I was real young. She was a tri-color. When I was 6, she had a litter. We were allowed to sit quietly and watch the puppies being born. She had a total of 13. One did die, though all the others were fine. We kept one. A male that we named Dirkson. He was all yellow except for a small spot on his hip by his tail that was white. It was the shape of the Sun, so his AKC registered name was Sunshine. He crossed Rainbow Bridge when I was 13. A disc slipped in his back so my parents chose to put him down as opposed to having surgery because they were told it could very well happen again. Shortly after his death, my parents got another Basset hound. We named him Waldo. He was a tri-color of black, brown and white. He was the nephew of Dirkson. He passed away when he was eight. I do not remember why right now. That was the last dog my parents had. I think why I remember Dirkson's death so much better than Waldo's is that Dirkson died while I was visiting my Grandparents out of town and no one told me until I got home. When Waldo died, I was away at college, but my Mom called me to tell me. I have another Basset Hound pattern of a tri-color basset, the same colors as Anabelle and Waldo, and I think I will do it for my house, though not sure when.

I need to iron and frame "Henry Basset". I have decided I am going to give it to our vet this year as a Christmas present. It has been sitting in my "Done Stitching" pile and I keep talking about giving it to the vet. This year I am just going to! I have never given them a gift at Christmas, but I think a cross stitch of an animal might be a cute gift to them.

The next project pictured is also one I did a couple of years ago. I did it as what was meant to be a wedding gift for my step-son and daughter-in-law. They got married while they were here in Illinois. I honestly just got myself so busy I never ended up framing and mailing to them. My plan is to get it to them as a Christmas gift.

I made a pattern for Denise, my Daughter-in-Law, which she loved. It was of a bottle of wine, glass, and snacks on a table. I still plan on making her a pattern Dick from ILCS gave me of roses in a gold and black bowl. My problem, I guess, is that I don't know if I should put down "Life's Little Tangles" and stitch on some of these other projects, or should I just stitch "Life's Little Tangles" until it is done? Now that I think about it, I am going to have to put "Life's Little Tangles" down occasionally. I signed up for an ornament exchange in ILCS that is suppose to happen soon. I have not seen the list of whom I am assigned to swap ornaments with, but I think the list should be coming out soon. "Life's Little Tangles" is obviously going to take me several months to complete. Part of me is afraid if I put it down for too long, I wont get back to it, the other part of me keeps thinking about other projects I want to do. I have a baby bib that I want to stitch. Wes's sister is due to have her first baby in May, if I  remember right. I think I will work on that during the slow times when I am an Election Judge next Tuesday. Hopefully, we will be pretty steady, considering how important this election is, but we usually have lull periods, where we can do what we like as long as we do not leave our assigned precinct. I do not want to take "Life's Little Tangles" to the precinct. I'd rather have a smaller project with me. So maybe I'll take the baby bib and whatever ornament I am going to stitch. I have only done one ornament and that was in an exchange on this same group a couple of years ago. The recipient loved it. That made me feel good.


I have been working hard at trying to get more clients as a housekeeper. I told you that I have started trying to bring in extra money to help make ends meet. This is a copy of the flyer I keep on the computer. I go ahead and print up several and then cut the sheet in half so each sheet gives me two fliers. I then go around various neighborhoods and introduce myself. Most people have been very receptive. I do have a few more clients this month than I did before I started doing this. I am hoping to get even more though, because I did lose my in-home care client for awhile. She was becoming very weak, and so ended up going to the nursing home for a maximum of 100 days.

My daughter, Sarah, had her 18th birthday this month. It is so hard for her dad and I to believe that our oldest daughter is eighteen years old! She is a senior in high school. She will have enough credits to graduate at the end of the second quarter. She is wanting to take classes at the junior college after graduation, but because the semester will end in January this year instead of December, because school did not start until late August as opposed to mid-August, she won't be able to start classes at the college until the fall semester. The reason school started so late was because of construction on a school that neither of my girls attend, but is still in the district, so school was delayed for everyone! :( She still has the job at Subway and is hoping to either increase those hours or get a second job or maybe quit Subway after finding a full-time position somewhere. We are very proud of her. She is proving to be a very responsible young lady. She was our answer to prayer. We have had issues occasionally with her, but lets face it, who doesn't occasionally have issues with their parents?

Our younger daughter, Rachel had her fall concert at school last week. She has played the euphonium now for three years. We are hoping she continues it when she moves into high school next year and become a member of the marching band. We know that marching band members can get scholarships to college. Rachel has been on the high honor or honor roll every quarter she has been in school since kindergarten. It is really hard to believe that she will be a Freshman next year!

Jack's health has been good and he has been a wonderful support to me during my recent rough patch. The medicine the doctor put me  on seems to be helping a great deal. I am so lucky he is MY husband. He is definitely my better half! :)

I believe I have started losing weight again, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I had lost over 150 pounds and have basically stayed at that weight for almost two years. But, recently it seems like I am losing again. I still have about 50 pounds to lose before I would really be where the doctor wants me, according to his chart. The only place I really am carrying any weight now is my thighs, which is where I was the biggest when my weight was so high. The doctor also told me that he doubts that I really have 50 pounds  of fat because of my lose skin from my previous large weight loss. I do know I have stayed the same size for the last two years. If he is right and some of my weight is loose skin, I am either going to have to live with it or somehow work it off. I know there is the surgery to remove loose skin, but that isn't really an option for me because of the cost.

I am so glad that I watched the World Series this year and that the San Fransisco Giants were in it and won! I grew up a San Fransisco Giants fan and went to their games at Candlestick Park as a child. I remember my sister getting Willie Mays' autograph. I haven't watched much baseball as an adult, but I think I want to start watching again. I live a couple hours south of Chicago, so could see the Cubs. St. Louis is about 5 hours away, so could also see the Cardinals.

Well, I am going to sign off for now. I want to check my e-mails and I have some house chores to do, not to mention stitching I want to do!

At Least 50% Done === Page Two

Hello, Everyone!

Sorry for so long between posts, I really meant to do this a long time ago, but September was a very trying month for me.

I was battling some issues, but believe I now have that under control. I have been stitching as much as I can. I am more than 50% done with page two. Jack was planning on me entering this into the fair next year, but not sure I'll have completed by then. It is a twenty-four page project. Granted, not all the pages have the same amount of stitches to be done, but still, it is a rather daunting thought to have it completed in eight more months. I started on this in either late June or early July and have only got this far.

My daughter had to have emergency surgery in the beginning of the month. She is completely recovered now, but it still made the beginning of the month chaotic. I love her and would not trade that chaos for anything because it was part of taking care of my baby!

 I am also still taking care of the in home care lady four days a week and cleaning a few houses as well. Trying to get more business there. I did pick up one more client definitely, but have been doing alot of walking door to door introducing myself with a flier about what I can/will do.

I have also been taking care of my family, getting Rachel to/from practice and games, she is a cheer leader for the Danville Chargers. A youth football team. Her competition is coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Jack somehow got a burn on his stomach. He cannot feel the right half of his stomach because of nerve damage that happened when he had his kidney removed in December 2006 because of cancer. We think it happened as he was carrying a bowl he took out of the microwave from the microwave to wherever he was going in the house, but we are unsure. Remember, he is an amputee, so is in a wheelchair, so he cannot carry thing the traditional way. We took him to the doctor about it last week and it is looking much better now.

I hope everyone is doing great! Take care, until next time!

Page Two is Getting There!

A couple of weeks ago I finished page one of "Life's Little Tangles". I really wanted to update at that time, but then some things happened around that time and I was unable to update. I was able to keep stitching though, so decided I'd move on to page two and show you an update when I had  half a chance. It is here! The craziness of the days, will slow down, hopefully. At least during the time the girls are in school. Sarah starts her senior year today and Rachel started  eighth grade. The picture in upper left corner is page one completion. The next picture is what I have stitched on page two so far. I really like how the project is looking so far. What is 100% done on page two is over to 110 and down to 40. I'm sure you can see that I have stitched a bit to the right of 110, but am not done on the top 10 section. The furthest I am right now is 140. The bottom part I have stitched goes just beyond 50.

I have been working steady at my care giver job. My client has been home from the nursing home since early July, but honestly, I am worried about her. She seems like she is getting weaker. She can usually walk a distance with her walker without any problem at all, but the last two days I worked have been all wheelchair, and just a few steps walker.

I am still cleaning homes as well, but am thinking of trying to get more clients in that aspect, since we really need me to work and if I lose my caregiver position again because of her going in the nursing home, we will be  stuck! Please pray for this situation.

My daughter, Sarah, is starting her senior year of high school today. She has turned into such a wonderful young lady. Earlier this week she and I ended up going out to pick her up something and it turned into a nice long talk. We went to dinner and really enjoyed ourselves. Honestly, before this talk, I was worried about her, but not as much now. She does seem to have her head square on her shoulders. She has been working at her job since October of last year and is now an Assistant Manager! :) Her pick-up is giving her problems, again, but we hope to have it fixed soon. Keeping our fingers crossed.

My daughter, Rachel, pulled her hamstring while doing cheerleading at a football game a little over a week ago. She started trying to walk on it, like the doctor said last Friday. She is still in alot of pain, but I told her she needed to walk because the hamstring would tighten way too much and never   heal right if she didn't. So she is. She went to school today with her brace on, even though it didn't help her outfit look 'cool'. We wanted her to have the brace at school because we didn't want her to force the walking and figured she could do that here at home.

I started working out at the YMCA again last week. It felt good to get back on the elliptical. In 35 minutes, including the 5 minute cool down, I ended up going 2.42 miles. I don't think that was too bad. It was over 3,000 strides.

There was a sudden death in a family that we consider dear friendsin early August. The girl who died was only 14 and died choking while having a seizure. This brought my seizures to the top of Sarah's list. She is very worried about me since I had been having seizures. I changed medicines in April, going back to what I was on before I had children, and I have been seizure free since then. In the six or seven months before making the change I had had a total of 4 seizures which is unusual for me. But I have not had one since changing medicine.

My church now has a new Pastor. He is very nice. We really like him and his family. They came here from Florida. I am not sure if  his kids (teenagers) have ever been in cold winters but I do know he has. He was telling me yesterday his first church was in Ohio. I have agreed with his sermons thus far.

Today is Jack's birthday. He is doing pretty well. He wants to basically kick back and enjoy the day, so that's what we will do.

Everyone take care and sorry it has been so long between updates. I'll try hard to get an update to you sooner.

The Craziness of July!

I have been wanting to update everyone for the longest time. July has been an absolutely crazy month for me. I was getting hours at work, a great thing, but I was also going to both Sarah and Rachel's softball games, taking care of the house, and stitching!

Ruby, the woman I take care of, is doing well. The way my schedule works with her is: four days on, four days off. The days that I work, I work two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. She has some days that she is very strong and others that she needs her wheelchair. She gets so frustrated with herself, when she talks because she is hard to understand . The stroke she had effects her speech. Some words are very clear, others are very hard to understand. She likes to watch my cross stitch pictures come together. I have been working on "Zoo Babies" at work, when Ruby was just watching television or sleeping. I have got everything done except the few beads put on. The pattern actually calls for French knot eyes in these places, but I have always had a hard time with those blasted things! The bird, above the Rhino needs one and the grey creature close to the top of the boat need two. My beading needles had somehow gotten out of my stitching bag, but I found them. Under my bed. Now I just need to take the few minutes to put them on and then I can send the finished project to Danielle!

Since finishing Zoo Babies, except for those few beads, I pulled out the elephants for my Uncle again. I have stitched some om this project too, but I think my 'thrill' for this project is gone. Not because I don't think Uncle Curt will like it, I know he will love it, but because I have personally had so many issues with it. Remember, I originally started stitching this project on a different piece of material and got the largest elephant almost all the way done before deciding to restart the project on a different piece of material. The holes were not even in the first piece, for some reason, so the stitches did not look even. I have stitched what I had done on the first go around and then some, as you can see. Christina, a stitching friend in Florida, told me that she would go ahead and stitch on it a bit for me. She suggested that I treat it like a round robin, and I am going to take her up on the suggestion. Thank you! I guess I may have lost my mojo for this one. I was stitching it when I was hired to do the cats and then I ended up getting started on "Life's Little Tangles". In the next couple of days I will send this down to Christina, with the threads I have and the pattern book. The few stitches you see on the far right are some stitches in yet another elephant in the picture. On the left side, besides the elephant I am working on, there is a tree and yet a fifth elephant. There is also the ground cover and the bushes in the background. Part of me is wondering if I ended up cutting my material shorter, width wise, than I should have. However, If I have done this, I am thinking of  omitting the elephant on the right that I barely started and the one on the left not even started yet. We will have to see how it pans out, I guess.

Both Sarah and Rachel have finished their softball seasons. Rachel's team ended up being the Champions of "A" League. The tournament was a couple weeks ago. It was a double elimination  tournament, and her team was defeating everyone. Then, when it came down to the Championship game, her team would of had to lose twice to end up in second place. Her team was home team. I was originally suppose to work the day of the Championship game, but swapped days with the other worker so I could go see the game. Game one started at six o'clock and ended up going into extra innings. It ended at almost nine o'clock with a score of 23 - 21. It was a very tight, very good game. Except they lost. Game two started after about a twenty minute rest. It went the normal number of innings and Rachel's team won 6 - 13. They were playing like Champions for sure! A couple of the girls on the team were not able to participate in the tournament because of going out of state at that time, but they still did very well without those girls. I know at least one of those girls was usually a big hitter and good fielder for the team, so coach was a bit nervous, but it turned out great anyway. Rachel is in the back row, second from the far right.

I went to the doctor in early/mid July and he filled out the form for me to get my driver's license back, since I have been seizure free. I believe a huge reason I am seizure free now is because of my insisting on my meds being changed back to what they were before I bore children. I took myself off of the meds, having the doctor put me on something else, because I was told that particular medicine was bad for the growing baby. I am not going to give birth to anymore children, so as far as I was concerned, it was okay for me to go back to the first medicine. In this medicine I average about one seizure every seven years. In the past years, Jack and I were realizing, that I averaged at least one seizure a year. Recent months had been even more frequent, with one in December 2010, one in September 2011, two in January 2012 and one in March 2012. I started my old medicine in April and have been fine ever since.

I have also been working on my HAED, "Life's Little Tangles". I am nearing the end of page one. Can you see that this is a pine tree? I was planning on working on this project for a few days, hopefully finishing up page one and maybe even starting page two. Page two has a great deal of sky. I am not sure what else, but I will discover, I am sure! This picture shows the length and width of page 1. Page  1 is eighty stitches wide and 100 stitches tall. What I have been doing is,  as I finish a 10 x 10 square of the pattern, I highlight that square on my hard copy. I scanned this picture last night and then did stitch a little bit more before going to bed. Where I stitched was in the middle bottom part of the picture, so now that area at the very bottom of the picture in the middle is just about solid. When I finish getting it solid, I will go over to the right side of the pattern and work that until it is solid. Then, I will stitch the last 1,200 squares of the lower right corner.

A couple years ago I stitched a small, simple, wedding announcement for my step-son and his wife. We had a sort of 'falling out' about a month after they married, and they ended up moving back to California. I ended up never framing the piece and giving it to them. Their second Anniversary is coming up next week and I am thinking of framing it and sending it to them. Why we had the falling out is not really that important anymore, but the lesson really does need to be learned. Unfortunately, my step-son is acting extreemly inmature and telling our grand children lies. I am hoping that if I give them some of my stitching they will consider it a peace offering.

My daughter-in-law has told us that she wishes they had never returned to California. What the whole thing, honestly, was over was that John needed to rely on himself to take care of his family instead of moving himself, his wife, and their three kids into our home and expect that Jack and I take care of them as if they were all our minor kids. John had a job but would not contribute to the house. With them here, we had nine people in our home. We live in a two bedroom one bath house.

I know Denise loves roses too, and so I am going to do a pattern of red roses in a gold/black bowl. Not sure when I will have it done, but I am wanting it to be my next start. Maybe I'll have it done for her by Christmas or her birthday of next year. Her birthday is in late August, and with today being August 1, there is no way to have it done by then!

I cannot remember if this happened before I posted last time, it has been so long since I posted, but I wanted to let you know that my daughter, Sarah, is being promoted at her job. She is now the Assistant Manager. Not bad! She will turn 18 in October and starts her senior year of High School in late August. She started working there the week before she turned 17. I am very proud of her. She is thinking of trying to graduate in December, a lot of kids do, and find a second job, maybe as a waitress somewhere?

Well, I need to sign off for now. I have house chores to tend to as well as stitching to do! Have a great week, everyone!

Ribbons, Ribbons, Ribbons!

I stitched these project a few years ago. I gave it to my daughter Sarah "Hunting Dogs" as a birthday present. I stitched Isaiah per Jack's request after his bout with and win over cancer. I ended up not actually framing either one until this past fall when I went to Fresno, but I had given both projects to whom the people meant. .

Jack has been encouraging me to enter my cross stitching in the fair this year after seeing last year's entries. We discussed it and decided that "Hunting Dogs" and "Isaiah" would be good entries. "Isaiah" did not place, but "Hunting Dogs" placed third. It is the first time I have ever entered anything I have stitched. I don't think that was too bad, for the first time making an entry in something like this. Jack says I was 'robbed'. We did notice 'Best in Show' and 'first place' were both pieces where every square of the project was stitched.

I have already discussed with the owner of "Sassy" about entering that project next year. I just posted a picture of the project for you to see. This was it before she was framed. Sassy is basically 8 x 10 and every square has a stitch. It is an original pattern because I created it using a program  called PCStitch. Originally the picture was taken of Sassy playing with her ball while on the bed. I took that picture and turned the bedspread into a cloud, to make it look as if she was playing with her tennis ball in heaven. The owners are very pleased.

 The other project I was thinking of entering next year is "Life's Little Tangles". I scanned this picture yesterday, I believe. I have stitched another 300 or so stitches since this picture. If you look closely, I believe you can see that what I have stitched thus far is tree tops and sky. I am loving this so far! This is the width and length of page 1 of the project. When Rachel found out how many pages of pattern there were in this project she nearly choked. She is use to me stitching projects maybe 4 pages as the largest. This one has 24 pages of pattern. Not all pages have the same amount of project. I discovered that every 6 pages the width isn't as much. Not sure about the length. Page 1 is 80w x 100h.

A couple weeks ago Sarah was in her first horse competition and ended up getting one second place ribbon and three forth place ribbons.Her Dad and I were very proud of her. She is also getting a promotion at her workplace. She is being trained for Assistant Manager. Not bad, for only being there since October and still being in High School. She starts her senior year this fall. Needless to say we are beaming because of these accomplishments!

Both girls are playing softball this summer. Sarah is in the 'Twilight' League, which is basically high schoolers and Rachel is on 'A' League. She goes into 8th grade this fall. Rachel just mentioned she needs someone to catch with, so I am going to go try. This will be interesting since my right hand does not work at all. I know that there is a professional pitcher that is one armed, so I know it can be done. Neither girl's team is in first place in their league, but don't know the rank either. Both are having fun and that is what counts.

We took our baby kitten to the vet for the first time last week. Partly to make sure of her gender - its a girl - and partly to get her her shots. We also took one of our dogs, Captain. He has been losing hair on his back by and above his tail and on his tail. The vet put him on a couple of different medicines and he is doing better. The kitten, named Ember, is doing wonderful!

Well, I need to sign off and put in a load of laundry. Take care everyone!

The Start of Summer

Hello, Everyone! Happy Memorial Day! Thank you for your service to those of you who have served or are serving in the military! My husband and youngest daughter and I went over to the Veterans Affairs grounds to the National Cemetery and watched a memorial service. It was very beautiful. We enjoy doing things like that.

 I have managed to get quite a bit of stitching in during the past couple of weeks. I have stitched a bit on the "Elephants", "Zoo Babies" and even got started on "Life's Little Tangles". I'll post pictures of all three.

First, here is "Elephants". I worked on it some, as you can see, but, not a whole lot, I guess. My material for "Life's Little Tangles" arrived and I have been anxious to start on that. Also, I really did need a change of pace. Working with browns and greys is getting old. I am thinking about altering the pattern a bit because I started wondering if I cut the material long enough to fit the entire picture in. On the far right of the picture you can see where I have started another elephant's foot. Beyond this elephant is suppose to be some of the same kind of scenery as is behind the smaller elephant. I am honestly not sure I have enough width of material for everything.   Jack mentioned to me how he has noticed how many different issues I have had with "Elephants". He told me that I really do need to finish it out, in nothing else because of the age of my Uncle who it is going to, but I really did need a change of pace and coloring too. Uncle Curt is 80+. I will probably do some measurements and figure out what, if anything, I did wrong. What I may do is put the scenery asked for around the smaller elephant and then go to the other side of the bull elephant and put the big tree and at least one of the two elephants the pattern shows.

I decided, because of the needing a change of pace in coloring, that I would at least do some on "Zoo Babies". Here is "Zoo Babies" thus far. I originally had the 'J' and 'K' in as well but when I started to put in 'L' I discovered those two letters were off, so I frogged them. I figured out where I went wrong. The top row of 818 (pink) was suppose to have one more stitch than I put. There is other areas that need that color as well, so when I go to do them I will put that stitch in. The hearts at all corners (like upper left) are all pink and the wheels of the wagon(?) the animals are in are that shade. I still need to put in the giraffe. He goes under the 'H' and 'I'; the hippo (which goes under the giraffe); the rhino (which goes under the blue bird at letter 'D'); the seal (which goes under the bunny right by the 'S', finish out the wagon, put the missing alphabet letters and then of course backstitch it aIl!

I  have also stitched probably nearing 600 stitches on "Life's Little Tangles". I started in the upper left corner as was recommended. This is the first pattern I have ever started that way. I have always started in the middle and worked my way out, but then I have never done a Heaven and Earth Design before either! The top picture on the right is my 'example' picture. What I have stitched so far is the picture below that. The top row is stitch 0 - 30. Then, going down I am also working on 0 - 30. When I have both directions 30 x 30 completely dome, I will have 900 stitches in. Page 1 is 80 stitches wide and 98 stitches tall. I'll keep you informed on my progress. When I finish this blog, I will be stitching on this. I think I'll end up stitching on this quite a bit this week. I feel good about my progress on "Zoo Babies", so feel like I can stitch something else. I really would like to make good progress on this pattern before my next posting. I have so many things I want to stitch!

I have been making time for myself to stitch. I really do feel less stressed, though I do not normally have this many projects going at once.

School is over. Rachel brought home her report card. Scanned it so you could see. Once again, Rachel was on Honor Roll. That means her entire seventh grade year she was either on High Honor Roll or Honor Roll. That is something of which to be proud!  The high school takes their finals during the last week of school so the high school mails their report cards. We have not received Sarah's report card in the mail yet. Then again, her last day was May 24. Rachel's was May 25.

I was told this morning by the other gal who helps take care of the woman I work with that they were taking her to the hospital via ambulance because she was unresponsive. The tests they did showed that she had another minor stroke. I know she is spending at least tonight in the hospital but do not know beyond that what will happen.

I go to the doctor myself Wednesday morning. This is the doctor in charge of my seizure medicine. I had a blood test last week, to see what my levels were. If everything goes right, he should fill out the paperwork that will allow me to get my driver's license back. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Rachel made this picture for her friend that moved to Nevada. We are considering getting her stuff to draw with...colored pencils, paper, calligraphy pens and such for her birthday in mid-June. She really enjoys drawing and we want to encourage her. This was just done with a normal pencil. She did it lighter at first and then, because it couldn't be seen real well on the scanner, she drew it darker.

Rachel's first softball game is tomorrow evening. With as much as they have practiced, I would be surprising if they didn't do well. I have not been told when Sarah's games start.

Sarah is in a horse riding competition this coming weekend. She is very excited. She has been working with and riding horses now for a couple of years and is quite good. I am not sure if she is riding just one horse or two different ones, but I do know her dad and I will go see the competition!

Sarah is also working quite a few hours at her job. She works for Subway,.

Jack is doing alright too. He and I have been doing various tasks in the yard together. We are liking how the yard is looking. I mowed part of the lawn Saturday and finished it up on Sunday evening. We have a pretty big yard and with the heat this weekend didn't want to try and do it all at once.

Well, that is about everything I can think of to tell you. Take care of yourselves.

Stitching, Stitching, Stitching!

I thought it may be time to show you an update on my elephant project for my Uncle Curt. I am excited about my progress. I am completely done with the bull elephant, except for the backstitching. There are a total of five elephants, of various sizes like the side view elephant, in this project. I started working a bit on the ground beneath the bull elephant. Maybe next time I'll have quite a bit of that done as well as some of the shrubs and trees.

I called the material shop yesterday that I ordered the material for "Life's Little Tangles" from (my HAED). I had not received the order yet and I had written the check out on May 1. They did a bit of researching and called me back. The check ended up postmarked May 9. They said they would put the material in today's mail, which means I should have it by the end of the week! That means I can start the project, again! I am excited about starting it, especially this time, because I know how to do 'over two' and the piece I ordered is big enough to have four inches on every side, extra. I also requested that they serge the edges to prevent freying.  I ordered it that way so I'd have plenty of material for framing at the end. I guess my only question about the project now is, "when a project is done on 25 ct, over 2, which is what I'll be doing, do I have the thread two thick or three thick?"

 Now that I have the bull elephant done, I am seriously thinking of starting that giraffe for my Great-Nephew. He was born in January and I have been wanting to stitch him a Noah's Ark giraffe. With everything else going on though, it just hasn't happened. I want and need to do it for him though. I did the "Precious Moments Praying Girl" for his sister. Here is that one when it was very close to done. Danielle never did get the framed picture to me, so I do not have a picture of this projects completion. I need to ask her about it again. I know she is very busy right now though. She is going to school, works and is raising two children, only 13 months apart. The project for Caleb is not just a Giraffe, but Danielle requested a Noah's Ark themed picture that had a giraffe in it.  So here is what I finally decided on. It is called "Zoo Babies". It has several different animals in it, as well as the alphabet. I was originally looking at a different  project in the book I have, but I have decided that the project I was originally thinking of would take quite awhile to do, it was good size (108W x 110H). "Zoo Babies" is smaller but still nice.(88W x 62H). this picture is "Zoo Babies", this picture is what the book has it on, a bag of some kind. I will just make it a project to be framed though.

I also what to start gathering the materials needed to stitch the roses in a vase or bowl.  (Pictures on the left here). I was thinking of giving that to my Daughter-in-Law. I will probably stitch it on 14 count Adia. I could also do it on the piece of 25 ct evenweave on which I was originally going to stitch "Life's Little Tangles" . The finished size of the project, if I do it on 14 ct will be right about 12.22 x 15.58. If  I go ahead and use the 25 count evenweave, the project size will be  13.58 x 17.5. Some of you may recognize this pattern. Dick, in ILCS has also done the project. The more I think about it, the more I am thinking of using the 14 ct adia. I have another HAED pattern that I uploaded for free and will probably use the 25 ct for it. It is of several animals around a Christmas Tree. I uploaded it quite awhile ago and I want to stitch it for my house.

I think between all of these projects that I want to do, both for my home and family, I should be able to stay out of trouble and stress free. What do you think?

I have great news, not related to stitching, but still...the job that I had taking care of a woman who had a stroke has started again. She was released from the nursing home yesterday afternoon and I had my first shift with her again this morning. I will be with her two hours in the morning and then two hours in the evening on the days I work. There are two of us helping her. One week one of us will work three days and the other four and the next week it will reverse. I can stitch all I want, once I have done everything she needs done.

The one bit of bad news I have this week is that my daughter's drive line on her pick-up fell off as she was going down a country road last week. We are going to be able to fix it at the beginning of next week. My parents have agreed to help with the initial cost. We are still having the attitude with our van, not wanting to start when it is under 60 degrees, but now that it has turned warmer that isn't as huge of an issue as Sarah's pick-up.

The other bit of great news I have is that Wes, the young man whom we consider like a son, will be coming home from Korea (he is in the Army and based there right now) on leave for a couple of weeks in June. His Tour of Duty will be over in Korea in October, if I remember right. We are all counting down the days. We miss and love him so much!

Well, I think that is all I have for you right now. Please take care and have a wonderful week!

Been Stitching to my Heart's Content!

I have been doing a fair amount of stitching over the past couple of weeks. I am sorry that I haven't updated sooner, but I was debating myself on one issue in particular, related to my HAED, but I will get to that in a bit. Meanwhile, I wanted to show you I have managed to get what I'd call a good amount done on my elephant since I started restitching on him after finishing up with the cats.

Here is the picture I took today next to the picture I took when I put the elephant down to complete the cats.I am proud of the amount of work I have done on him. The first picture of Re-Stitched Elephant was done on March 14. So, the stitching I have done on the elephant has been since I finished "Rough Day Cat" which was April 16, the day of my last blog. The biggest elephant of the picture is basically done from the bottom of his ears up. There might be 10 stitches in his right ear, but other than that completed from the ears up. There are five side views of smaller elephants and a couple of trees and some bushes on this picture. This project is long and tall (219W x 116H). With the size of the rest of  this bull elephant verses everything else in the picture, I am tempted to say once I finish the bull elephant, the project will be about 35-40% done. I do feel much better about how this project is turning out since I completely changed the material.

Now back to my HAED, "Life's Little Tangles". I had actually managed to do a fair amount on this project. I am between 300 and 400 stitches, if  I remember  right. I guess 'fair' is a relative term, but considering the size of the finished project I think it was a fair amount. remember, this was my second start on this project because I didn't like the thickness of the thread the first time around and frogged before I got too far(I was under 50 stitches at that point). This picture shows how far I am right now. I am not really liking the way it looks doing the project over 1, so I decided I will go ahead and do it over 2. I know this means that a big picture to begin with will be double the size, but I think if I feel better with the stitching of it that will be fine. Jack and I were talking about the best place in the house for it, and decided proudly on the Living Room wall. I do give away a good part of what I stitch, but this one I want to keep!! I went ahead and ordered the proper amount of material for over 2 on 25ct from Silkweavers. She is charging me one third less than another on line material store and she is cutting the piece to exactly what I want and serge the edges all the way around to prevent freying! The other store wanted to sell me a piece that I would have ended up wasting a few inches in each direction.

I did start in the upper left corner, and I will do that when I restart (for the third time). I really think it will look better over 2 instead of over 1. I know it will be much easier on my eyes!

As far as what will I do with this 25ct material that won't be used for the HAED? I have the project for my great nephew (The Noah's Ark Giraffe picture requested) as well as the roses in a bowl that I want to do (possibly for DIL) and needed material for. I was originally going to do both of those on 28ct evenweave, or 14ct adia,  but 25ct evenweave would work too. Or, I could save the 25 ct for maybe a smaller HAED. I have a freebie from them about Christmas Animals that I am not sure the size of but really want to stitch. On round three of  "Life's Little Tangles"  I ordered enough material to have 4" of material on all sides to allow for framing. That was another issue I was thinking about. On rounds one and two of doing this project I was allowing for 2" on every side. I started thinking, "is that really enough allotment for proper framing?" I wasn't sure. I really want to be able to frame this when I'm done with it and would have been beyond sad if I couldn't. I think 4" on each side will be plenty to frame it though.

Jack and I started talking about, "should I enter any of my stitching in the fair?": He said he has seen other stitching projects at the fair and he believes that mine are worthy of ribbons. The two he is talking about the most are:

"Isaiah 40:31" (the picture on the left) and  the other one we are talking about is "Jesus in the Garden". I actually stitched the second one twice. Once for us, it is in our dining room now and once for my sister-in-law and her husband. There are other possible candidates too, but honestly, I give away a good part of what I stitch. I don't think my mom understands why I stitch just to give it away, but I get pleasure in making projects for others to enjoy as much as I enjoyed stitching them. I have spoken with a woman who told me she'd get back to me on how I'd go about possibly entering some of my stitching.

I was nominated by Lisa for a  Liebster Award. I was surprised and honored! Thank you, Lisa!

When receiving this award there are four conditions:

1 – Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to pass on the award.

2 – Show thanks to the blogger who passed on the award by linking back to them.

3 – Post the award on your blog, list five bloggers you are giving the award to with their site links and leave a comment so they are aware.

4 – Share five random pieces about yourself that people do not know about you.

Now I need to honor 5 fellow stitchers with blogs who have under 200 followers. My nominees are:

1)  April in Alabama
2) Patty - the compulsive crafter
3) Nancy -Nancy's Needle Notes
4) Katie - Kate's Floss Box
5) Pam in IL - My stitchin-n-stuff

The person who nominated me was Lisa. You can get to her link at: http://thesocialcrossstitcher.blogspot.com/

As far as 5 random pieces about me that people probably do not know:

1) I am told my homemade peanut butter cookies are the best
2) I am a totally left handed person.
3) I have lost a huge amount of weight since May 2009 and kept it off
4) I love the outdoors
5) I love mystery kind of shows


Now on to non-stitching news.

I told you how we were told that everyone was going to go into what the softball league termed "the draft" so that no one could have the same team, basically, this year. Rachel was a bit worried because usually if a girl goes into the draft it is by choice so she can get off of a team that she and the coaches have problems. Rachel and one coach definitely have personality conflict, as that coach downgrades his players regularly. Also, she really loved her coach the past couple of years. He made her feel good about herself. She did not get back on the team she was in the last two years (Police) which is where she really wanted to be, but, she also didn't get that horrible coach either. She is back on the team that she was on when she first started playing softball (Jorgensen Electric). He is a great coach. He listens to his players and the parents. He also works them hard and teaches them. She is getting ready to go to what I think is the third practice of the year.

I finally won the battle with my doctor over my medicine for my seizures. His office called me, I think the day after my last post, and told me they were going to allow me to go ahead and take the medicine I want , the strength I want. I must go in a couple weeks now and have a blood draw to show him the levels are right and then see him the last day of May. I want Jack to go with me to the appointment. He has no problem with that. If everything stays good, meaning seizure free, I will get my license back in mid-June. BTW, his office gal told me I basically wore him down to him finally giving in. You know what? That's okay though, because as the patient, taking this medicine before, I know it works for me! I have not had any problems since returning to this medicine.

The woman I work for every day (two hours in morning and two hours at night) should be released from the hospital any day. When she is I will get back to work :) The little bit of income I receive from her does help a great deal with the extras, like the girls softball and my car arguing with us.

Since it has been warmer, the car has not had  any problems starting, but when it is under 58 degrees, the radio will play but the crazy thing won't turn over. The thing is, as long as it is running, the shop says that can't try to fix it because there is no way to diagnose! Maybe, by the time it gets cool again, I can have enough money set aside to see about a different vehicle all together!

Jack is doing well physically. We have been doing some of the yard work together. Yesterday, while I mowed with the gas mower, he used the electric weed trimmer and took care of some of those as well as watered the plants and flowers and such. He cannot use things like gas mowers because of his pacemaker. Those little machines could screw up his pacemaker. That would be horrible!

Sarah is getting more hours at work again. She was bummed when her hours were cut, but then everyone's were, not just hers. She went and told her co-workers if they needed her to work, she'd cover their shift. She closed last night, closes tonight and will close tomorrow.

Rachel's band got low scores in the competition  last week. She was disappointed but we told her that it could be because the kids did harder songs than her school or even got more practice time in. Rachel is musically inclined. She plays the piano and euphonium. She and her sisters also have guitars, like dad, but they haven't practiced them very much. Sarah is better on her guitar than Rachel, but still, neither girl has touched their guitars for months.

Well, I should be signing off for now. I have spent all day away from stitching. Today I have paid  bills, gone to breakfast with Jack and been on my computer, mostly doing this blog during the computer time. Now I want to go stitch for awhile. I am debating on starting the Noah's Ark project for my Great-Nephew.  Haven't decided. Really want to do the elephant for my Uncle as well. I guess you could say I'm torn. I know when the material gets here for "Life's Little Tangles" I will be working on that one too. I guess my real question should be, how many projects of lage to huge, should I have going at once?

Rough Day Cat

I finished "Rough Day" cat this morning and I really like how it turned out! I realized this morning that this one only took me about a month to do.  I don't know if that should be considered a long time, but I think the amount of time spent on it was reasonable. I posted pictures, once again, of  "Creation" cat and "Control" cat, so you can see all three pictures that I was paid for. I will deliver the cats to Jan on Thursday. She will frame them in the near future. She is very excited. I have been showing her the projects, periodically, so she has been seeing them "come to life", so to speak.

I am showing a bigger picture of "Rough Day" cat than the other two because I have posted the other two completed already. I guess I was just wanting you to see all three together. I am very happy with the way all three turned out.




Now I can get back to the elephant, and start the roses and "Life's Little Tangles" (my HAED). I am very excited about all three of these projects. I am taking time, every day to stitch a little bit, even if it is only an hour. Those hours add up and make progress! Next blog will show progress on one or more of these projects, I am not sure which ones, but I believe the elephant will be one for sure! I don't know how many projects I want going at once, but I also have a project picked out for my great-nephew that was born in January, Khaleb. My niece said she wanted something in the theme of Noah's Ark. I got a Noah's Ark book and have something picked out with a giraffe. If I remember right that was what she really wanted, the Noah giraffe. I will probably try and talk to her again before I start that project, just so I know I have it right.

On Easter I was contacted by Dan, the husband of the woman I was working with. She will be released from the nursing home at the end of this week. They want me to come back. Of course I will.

We need me to work, even if it is just a little bit, to help take care of things like the car breaking down, which it STILL isn't working right and the credit card that went on the high side of the limit because of all the car repairs. When we have a little bit of cash built up we will take he car to the dealer and see if they can figure it out. We cannot really get rid of it, even though part of us wants to, because we have a loan against the car. That is another thing we want to pay off fast and so if I am working, that is more possible.

This parrot bookmark was the one I received from Kelly in our exchange of bookmarks in my yahoo group. I sent her a bookmark that was a hot air balloon ans said "Reading Always Carries Me Away". It wasn't the one I had originally picked out, and I had actually finished everything except the backstitching on the original one, but it disappeared. The day after the election I realized the bookmark was no longer in my stitching bag. Jack and I even contacted the fire station where I was an Election Judge. They looked everywhere as did I, so I suspect someone saw it and snagged it. The original bookmark was pink flowers in a blue and white container.

I asked my doctor if  I could come in this week to do a blood draw so we could make sue my med level is right. I also said, again, how much I wanted to be put back on my original meds. They are telling me that I can have my blood drawn next week and they will talk with me when I see them in May about my being put back on the original medicine. I am so very frustrated with this doctor! I tell you, if it wasn't for my stitching to help keep me calm, I'd be going nuts for sure. The doctor seems to think that the seizures I have had are stress related. Well, they are not helping the stress, by ignoring me!

Maybe I'll have better news next time, on this subject

I need to be signing off for now. Take care everyone!

Busy Spring!

The past couple of weeks have been up and down for me.

I have stitched a decent amount. I have made a lot of progress on "Rough Day" Cat as you can see. I have been concentrating all my stitching time on "Rough Day" Cat. I will probably be done with this project within a couple of weeks, not sure. What I have left to stitch on this project is the face, tail, left edge  of the cat and the phrase.

I have not stitched on my elephant project at all, so I have no pictures to show you on him.  

Since my last post, I was able to purchase the material, DMC threads, and needles to get started on my first HAED. I do so want to start this project, but I really feel like I need to finish "Rough Day" cat since it is the third project of the three that I was hired to stitch. I do not think it would be fair to the people who hired me for me to stitch a different project until what they hired me to do is done, you know what I mean?

I don't have a picture of them, but the tulips that I planted last fall, hoping I was doing them correctly, came up and were beautiful. I planted 50 of the 100 bulbs I purchased last year. I was not sure I was planting them correctly, so I didn't want to plant all 100 in case I was wrong. Also didn't want to possibly lose all those bulbs to my neighborhood squirrels. The tulips looked beautiful for at least two, if not three weeks. This fall I will plant the other 50 so next spring we may have as many as 100 tulips come awake. I have mowed the yard a couple of times already this year. We have used the rototiller in a couple of areas because we want to have a more level yard and we really would like to have a garden of some vegetables this year. Jack would definitely like tomatoes. I don't know what else we are planting for sure, but various things are being discussed.

I got the girls signed up for softball. It was confirmed that Rachel will be put in the draft, even though she doesn't want to be, because a coach who has poor sportsmanship last year is insisting that everyone goes through the draft this year. Rachel's coach last year is going to do everything he can to get Rachel back. It is a quite long story and I honestly cannot remember all the sordid details, but trust me this coach is acting very immature. I just hope that Rachel doesn't end up on the team that she left a couple of years ago. There is a team where the coach was cussing out the kids because he felt they were not giving it their all. You know, honestly, if I had a coach cuss me out when I was 11 years old I don't know if I'd give it my all either.

Jack has been doing alot of bar-be-quing already this year. He has done up ribs, chicken, a pork roast and I cannot remember what else. He has "smoked" a couple different pieces of meat. It has been very good. I am so glad that I bought him this smoker/bbq for Father's Day last summer. He is going to get alot of use out of it, I can tell.

Jack has a pacemaker/ICD unit that was put in in January 2009. I am very glad it was there. Monday of last week at 5:30 in the morning it jolted Jack's heart. By the time the paramedics arrived, Jack was fine, so he stayed home, but he did go to the doctor on Wednesday and had the unit tested and was given the results Friday. His heart rate went up to 262 and then spiked at 400. The gal told Jack those numbers are not compatible with life.

I had a seizure last week. I am becoming quite frightened about these seizures. I am still somewhat confused. Usually after a seizure I am confused until I get some sleep, but I have slept and I am still confused. I am not sure what is going on, why all of the sudden I am having seizures with more frequency. Please pray for me. I have gone, in recent months and years, to having 1 seizure every seven years to having couple of years to now every few months. I had a seizure here at the house Friday night. I was getting the dinner dishes done when I went into it. Rachel and Jack were able to get me in bed before it really hit. That means I have had three separate days since September where I have had seizures.

Well I need to be going. I need to start dinner and get the groceries put away. Until next time everyone! How do tostadas sound for dinner?

Cat #2 is DONE

The second "Cat" project out of three was completed a couple weeks ago. Jan, the woman I am stitching them for, took a picture the next day but she was unable to e-mail me the picture until yesterday. (She has been having computer issues and actually had to go buy a new computer). I like how it turned out. I started stitching on the third "cat project" -- "Rough Day" probably the day after I was done with "Creation" cat. I have not gotten very far on him at all. (Rough Day is the picture on the right). I believe that is because I was stitching on other projects as well. I got involved in an exchange in one of my stitching groups and felt like I needed to stitch that project. I am stitching a bookmark for Kelly. I am not complaining at all! I like stitching things like bookmarks, I just hope Kelly likes the bookmark. I am nearing the "backstitching stage" on the bookmark. But before I got involved with the exchange, I did decide to restart the elephant project for my Uncle as a memorial of my Aunt. The picture on the left is the last picture I had of this project. I think I stitched a little more on it before I finally decided I really didn't like the way it was turning out. I had purchased the kind of material I really wanted for this project and just decided I was going to re-start the elephant. My progress on the restart is on the right. I have not noticed any uneven squares or anything else that makes me unhappy that I am using this material! I think that this pattern, even though it is a fairly large project, will not take that long (if you calculated stitching hours per project). I have not scanned a picture of the bookmark for Kelly yet, but I think I will wait until I am done to scan it since from what I understand, I'm not really suppose to post any progress pictures on exchanges so the person receiving what you are making doesn't see.

Well, I did get a small job that ended up lasting a week. I may get called back to it, but for now it is on hold. I started working for an older couple (private pay) helping her get in/out of bed, on/off toilet, her bath, dressed, and to the table for breakfast then to her chair in the living room. It was 2 hours in morning and then 2 hours at night, every day. Yesterday the weather was beautiful here in Danville. She wanted to go for a ride. Her husband wanted to take her. She ended up falling on her way back into the house after the car ride. He called me to help get her up, but because of the way she had landed I was unable to get her up. She was not being cooperative. Paramedics came and took her to the hospital because she was complaining of her arm hurting. Nothing was broken, so they sent her home. I went to her home when she got there last night after her release from the hospital and she was still having issues about walking as well as she usually did. Not that she could walk perfect before, she uses a walker, but she could walk quite a way without any new issues. Well when she got back from the hospital, on the way back into the house she fell again, twice. This time I was able to get her up. Jack was in our car [yes, its fixed...hold on for that story]. I asked him to call Sarah to help me get her to her bed since she was having so many issues. Sarah and I were able to get her into her pajamas and into bed. He then told me I could go home for the night and he'd see me in the morning. When I came in this morning, I was able to get her to the bathroom, but she said she was in a lot of pain and was not really wanting to try and do much of anything. She said her back hurt too much. I told her I understood that she was hurting because of her falls yesterday but that she needed to at least try to work with us. She refused. After my shift this morning her husband ended up calling her doctor and explained what is going on. He put her into the hospital. From there she will go into a nursing home. I feel badly for her, because if anybody understands how much a person hurts the day after a bad fall it is me. He did tell me that he will call me again, when she needs elp again. This tells me they do not blame me for any of this.

Now about my car...

The majority of last week the car would not start in my driveway. It was having the same issues it had been showing for weeks now. We finally had it towed to the second mechanic again on Friday. When he got it, he said the battery was completely dead and that was the issue. We had a very hard time believing that the battery was the issue because of the symptoms the car had been doing with us. Evidently when they got the car there was no lights coming on, no dinging sounds, nothing at all. They said they had charged up the battery and it had started right up. Jack told them to let it sit over night and see if it would start the next day. It did not. Then they went and put a battery in it they knew was good and left it alone until the next day and it started right up. That was when we went ahead and brought it home -- yesterday. So as Jack said this afternoon, God granted me this small job long enough to have the funds to pay for the car repair and make a payment on another bill. God is good!

I was also able to recently finally get a new printer! I ended up printing out the big HAED pattern that I recently purchased as well as another pattern I have been wanting to print out for a long time but have not been able to since our printer had taken a nose dive. Now I need to buy the material to stitch this pattern on. Hopefully very soon!

I know you all are interested in how my doctor appointment went with the doctor about the seizures I had recently. She increased my medication a little at a time to a total of 300mg more than I was taking. Next month I am suppose to have a blood draw to show her where my levels are now. They were on the low side of 'okay' range when she had them drawn before, back in October. I see her again in May. So everything is being taken care of.

I need to be signing off for now. Jack and I have a store run that we need to do. Take care everyone, and happy stitching to those of you who stitch!