Catching Up

Hello, Everyone!

I am so sorry for not updating in so long. I have had major computer issues as well as working like crazy! My desk top computer had become very slow and in mid-December decided it wasn't going to let me bring up my dashboard to update my blog, Facebook to say, "hello" to anyone or even my groups. Not that I spend near the time on my computer as my daughters do on theirs or even my husband does on his, but I was getting to the  point I was about ready to completely give up on computers all together!!

I have been working rather steadily in my  house cleaning business, I am happy to report. I have a few new clients. Most of my clients are once a month, but I have a few that are every other week and even some weekly. I am happy.  I was praying it would do what it is doing...give me the funds to take care of things like groceries with the economy taking the nose dive it has. I have also been working with my in-home care client..

In early December Nordic Needle featured me in their news letter. I was very proud of what they said.. Thank you, Dawn. or giving me this suggestion. If you wanted to take a peek at the article, you can see it by going to: http://tinyurl.com/bhje8rt

I have been working on "Life's Little Tangles" as much as I could. I have the first three rows (2,560 X's) completed as well as the narrow column going down on the left side (4 stitches wide) all the way to the bottom of the page. This would be because of each square on the graph of the pattern being ten wide by ten high. It is the stitches that would make the previous page the ten by ten. I have also completed some on row four.  I need to take a picture of this project to show you, but I was hoping to cover the hole repair completely before posting another picture. I am working on the patched area right now. The hole was originally small, but became larger, unfortunately, as I was trying to attach the material for the hole. I am having to stitch a bit of the upper left corner of page 4 to cover the hole completely.  Jack and I were talking that because of the hole and repair, I shouldn't enter this into the fair, like I was  originally thinking, but the project would still work for the house.

My Christmas didn't start off the best because my older daughter and I were arguing, however, when the argument was over, I had my daughter back! She finally told me some things she has been keeping inside her for over seven years. Now we are finally healing! I am so happy to have her back! Christmas ended up pretty well. None of us got a huge number of gifts, but Jack and I have always told the girls it isn't about the number of gifts you receive. Christmas is about Christ and His birth.


In December my younger daughter learned a valuable lesson about honesty. I am just praying the lesson sticks. For those of you wondering about Rachel's arm, all has healed.

Sarah, my older daughter, has now completed High School. She only had to attend the first semester this year because she had the proper number of credits and thus did not need to attend the second semester. The first semester ended last week. She and a girlfriend of hers are going to be renting a home not too far from here. They have been gathering the things needed to have your own place. Right now she only has a part-time job, but I am hoping that she lands a full-time one before the move is official. She plans on starting college in the fall, studying first to be a CNA and then a RN.

Wes got home on December 31. He is now looking for work as a mechanic. He is helping Sarah move furniture and so on into her house.

Jack has been talking with the people from Hovaround to see about some sort of scooter for him. He has a jazzy now, but it is really on loan, so he wants to get one of his own.

My birthday was very special to me. I turned 50. I was spoiled! My husband cooked me a wonderful breakfast. I got cake and ice cream in the afternoon, along with a small party. I ended up getting tons of cross stitching related supplies. I belonged to a cross stitching birthday club that actually ended with my birthday on January 1. My parents sent me some money and I ended up buying even more stitching supplies as well as a laptop  computer!
 
i did take a bad fall; Saturday afternoon and could barely move yesterday. Am still sore today, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.

Well, that gives you the highlights of the past several weeks. I hope to have the patch completely covered by my next post. Happy stitching, everyone!

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!