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!