The Chaos of September!

Hello, Everyone!

Life's Little Tangles Restart

Well, once again it has been near a month since my last update. BRATS! I really do want to start posting more often again.

I have been stitching a lot on "Life's Little Tangles". I cannot remember how fast or slow I did it last time I started, but it seems like I am stitching slower. Maybe it is my imagination. I don't know. What I do know is that I love using the red guide thread on this project!! In this picture you can see on the left that I have some stitches under the completed sections. Page 1 ends one row under the bottom stitch. Page 1 also ends one  column past the short brown line on the right. With me using the red guide thread, I feel like I can more easily count and it will be easier to move from page to page.

Jack mentioned to me that if I finish "Life's Little Tangles" by the beginning of next summer I'd blow them away at the fair. He may be right, but, I have other projects I want to do as well, thus I don't want to ignore them either. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself. This project is 24 pages, 450W and 373T. If I don't finish it by summer of 2015, maybe I can try for the summer of 2016?! Jack is supportive of me either way! I love him so much!!

I have stitched a bit more on "Stop That Cat".I also frogged a bit of Dahlia's birth
date on her announcement. I noticed that I'd put a dash symbol between the 1 and the 4 on the year

Stop That Cat

she was born. It won't take much to fix that. It will  .end up giving me enough room to put the time, like Jack and I had discussed.

I also have a pattern that talks about friendship that for the longest time I've been wanting to do for my girlfriend since second grade. Micki and I have been through everything together. She still lives in Fresno, California, where I was born and raised. After our first year of marriage Jack and I moved from Fresno to Bakersfield, California. The next year we moved to Illinois, largely because of the cost of living in California. We have been here ever since. Micki comes out to see us periodically. We have also gone to Fresno on occasion. Honestly, Micki has been able to come here more than us to there. I think a big

Dahlia May 5 wks old

part of that is because she never married. She is very shy and has trouble introducing herself to people. She is a wonderful person with a huge heart!

Sarah and Chance are in Pennsylvania on business for Chance and to show Dahlia off. They left early Thursday morning and arrived at his mom's house Thursday evening around 9:30, Illinois time. About a fifteen hour adventure. Not too bad, considering they had to stop periodically so Sarah could nurse Dahlia. This picture of Dahlia was taken last week. She was 5 weeks old. The outfit she is wearing a friend of my sister-in-law in Tennessee crocheted for her. She looks adorable in it! I'm not sure if you can tell, but Dahlia has blue eyes. They should be home on Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm not sure which.

The way Chance's hours are at work, it turns out he didn't have to take any time at all off for this business trip. Sarah is working again, but very minimal hours. She's hoping to go full time again before long. They are looking at a home in a town a few miles out of Danville. It is a very cute home, very reasonably priced.

Rachel is still going strong with the fire department. This morning she had to be at the station early because they were going to burn a condemned home as a training exercise. They finished the burn about an hour ago and now they are going out to eat.

Rachel is also doing well in school. Her Dad and I are very proud of her. She had ended up with a couple of low grades on her progress report, but did what was necessary to bring them back up. The first actual report card comes out in mid October.

Jack recently had a birthday. He received a refurbished laptop from his sister. His other laptop died months ago. Considering Jack writes on fan fiction that was very bad news. He recently started a new story that seems like it will be v ery good. The lap top arrived yesterday. He got right to work on it. He is so happy! Which of course makes me happy!!

I have signed up to attend "Stitching Under the Oaks" in Florida late next May. I have it about half paid for now. Lord willing I'll be able to finish paying it off soon. They request you have your portion paid for by March, which makes sense.

A couple weeks ago my sister, who lives in Idaho and cross stitches as well, sent me a huge box full of all kinds of stitching supplies. I was not expecting this at all. I knew she was sending something for Dahlia, but I had no idea about this box that has everything from various colors of adia; in several sizes, and way to much else for me to break down everything. I may see about taking a picture and posting it, but trust me, this box is huge and stuffed to the gills!

During the few days that Sarah and Chance have been away, I was able to be at my computer. On Thursday I caught up on my e-mail. I was very behind. Yesterday Jack "defragged" my computer and I cleaned my desk completely. No more clutter at all! I am very pleased. at the accomplishment. True, I was at it all day yesterday, but it looks so much better! Here' is to hoping it stays that way!! :)

Well I should be signing off now. I have a kitchen to clean and a load of laundry that needs to be started.

Everyone take care and thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate each and every one of you. Feel free to leave me a comment. I try to respond to each one!

Happy stitching to those of you who stitch!