Another great giveaway!

Check out Karyn's great giveaway on her blog, located here. Good luck everyone!!

It looks like such a great bunch of things, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I win. lol

Black Friday

Since I don't have any stitchy pictures to show (not much stitching done this past week due to having the kids home, working and having a pulled muscle or pinched nerve in my back) I thought I'd tell you about our dealings with Black Friday.

I'd love to go out on Black Friday, I know, I know; most people think I'm nuts. The last time I got to go was when I was pregant with Kaitlyn and I had to drag Marie and Logan with me at 5:00 a.m. They weren't happy but then again, they weren't really awake. I don't do the whole day shopping thing. I decide what I want and go get it (or rather I send DH to go get it) so we were home by 8:30 that morning and that was after doing breakfast. The kids were still in their jammies and went back to bed when we got home.

This year we started planning on things we wanted to get a couple of weeks before and waited to get the circulars on Thanksgiving to see where he was going first. We did enough research (Hey, with four kids you really have to know how to shop so you can get the most for your money) to find out that we could order a couple of things at Walmart.com and avoid that area of the store all together. They had $.97 shipping on a couple of items we've been wanting to get so at midnight I tried to go online to purchase. Their circular said it was available on Friday so what the heck right?? I tried again around 1:00 a.m. and gave up and went to bed. At 3:30 a.m. my DH woke me up to find out whether or not I was able to get those items. I immediately jumped up and hit the computer and to my surprise, I was able to order them both with no problems!

By the time I was done ordering, I was wide awake and that was the extent of my sleeping and my Black Friday shopping. LOL The DH, however, had lots to do and still had to head out to WM, Target and Staples. He headed out the door around 4:05 and was back home by 7:10 with a nice hot cup of coffee for me!! I got my wireless keyboard and mouse for more than 50% off from Staples and I couldn't be happier. I had been pricing the wireless keyboards and found a cheap one for $29.95 at Target (and that was just the keyboard) but was hoping that something better would come along with Black Friday sales and I got lucky! Staples had a nice set from Microsoft for the same price. Normally this set costs $79.95, or so they say. lol I was also able to get some nice jammies and a couple of pairs of jeans too. Yeah, I know! Black Friday is supposed to be about shopping for other peoples Christmas presents but I needed these things and I wasn't about to walk away from a really good sale. (Okay, Okay, technically it was DH not walking away from them but still, you get my point right?!?!?! lol)

We were able to get the majority of what we had put on our list and that's a miracle. Most times you miss out on a lot because you can't be in two places at once. I think it was because most places weren't really having really good deals so that made the decision on where to go a whole lot easier. I have to say I was pretty much disappointed in Target this year. That is my favorite place to shop and they really didn't have good deals. WalMart beat them on everything. After Santa delivers all the goods we helped him find, I'll show you all the good deals we found for him. I bet you didn't know we shop for Santa and wrap presents to help him out. Yup, for a couple of years now I've been doing everything I can to help Santa out as he's such a busy guy. ;) After we get the stuff for him, he has breakfast with DH so he can take the bulk of it back to the North Pole with him. On Christmas Eve, if he's behind on his wrapping, I help him out and still leave the cookies and milk for him.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and lots of fun shopping on Black Friday!

A pic and a story or two

Happy Halloween Sampler from Oakhaven Designs

I finally finished the HH Sampler from Oakhaven Designs and posted a pic for you to see. Please ignore the wrinkles as I didn't iron it or anything just grabbed the camera and shot a pic. I did finish a small Christmas design be OHD but didn't like how it turned out so I am doing it again and will get a picture when it's completed.

So this weekend, my DH and I had a date afternoon on Sunday to go to the movies and head to dinner. I spent Saturday trying to get caught up on laundry, dishes and regular cleaning while keeping the children from killing each other. Logan had a meltdown each day but I think Saturday's was the worst. I'm still not sure what was bothering him but he was so mad he ripped his diaper apart. Now, thankfully, it wasn't a smelly diaper just the "wet" kind. I kept telling myself that I was very lucky. The whole time I'm wiping everything up and vacuuming all the lovely stuff they put in the diapers to pull the liquid away from baby/toddlers. Let me tell you that stuff is messy!! I was about to pull my hair out as I sat there cussing under my breath. Logan was in the bath soaking as he'd rubbed it all over himself. Yeah, that was lovely too but again, it could have been so much worse. I had an old can of carpet cleaner that I was trying to spray all over the carpet so I could scrub it. It wasn't spraying very well so me, being me a/k/a stupid as sh&* I had the sprayer up near my face as I tried to figure it out when I pushed the button. I'm still not sure what I was thinking (okay, I know I wasn't thinking at all) when I did that one but I did manage to close my eyes before I felt the foam hit my eyelids and face. Needless to say my face and hair were really clean and smelled like freshly scrubbed carpet. ROFLMBO! Lord I can do some pretty stupid things!!! Yes, I'm 41 and I still do incredibly stupid stuff.

I did manage to clean up the carpet without hurting myself any further and we made our date on Sunday. We had a great time, and as usual it was too short. We went to see A Christmas Carol in 3D and I have to say it was AWESOME!!! If you're going to go see this movie, play the extra $3.00 and go see it in 3D. I love Christmas movies and really enjoyed this one. It was neck and neck with Polar Express in my book. Today the kids and I are going to grab those 3D glasses I didn't turn in and watch PE in 3D. It's time for some popcorn and a nice sit down with the kids. They were very patient while I worked this morning so now it's time for a treat for everyone.

Hope you have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Work, work and more work!

I did finally get some time yesterday to get some stitching done. I have one more ghost to do on my Happy Halloween Sampler from Oakhaven Designs and it will be complete! Yeah!!!! I've been wanting to get this one done for a couple of weeks now but work has gotten in the way. lol

I thought I had posted about my new job but that's what I get for thinking. About six weeks ago now, I received an e-mail from the local Data Entry company saying they had openings in the Homeworker Division and was I still interested in a position. I filled out an application almost two years ago and hadn't heard a thing until recently. I jumped at the chance and am now working from home. I had training for four weeks, Friday and Saturdays and then was able to do some keying while we waited until the next weeks training. We deal with those little inserts in the magazines. Those are fun to read, let me tell you!

Now that the training is over we are allowed to order as much work as we can handle. I've been working from 10:00 every morning until at least 5:00. Granted, I do have to stop and start twice while going to pick up Katie and Ryan at school so I really only work about 5 hours each day. I'd love to work more but until I get a little more used to the work I'm afraid to order any more. On Friday, I worked until almost 10:00 p.m. What a day that was! lol I also have some issues with carpal tunnel that I completely forgot about. It's amazing what your brain will forget when it hasn't dealt with something in a long time. DH went and purchased some special gloves for me and they seem to be helping. Now if I can just do something about my back. I will be getting a wireless keyboard in a couple of weeks to try to alleviate some of the back issues from hunching over the keyboard at the desk. Oy! It's hell to get old. LOL

I hope to get the ghost done tonight and get a picture up here this week. I have two Christmas (or was it three) designs sitting here begging to get stitched. lol I'm not too sure how much stitching I will get done during the week because, after keying all day (even with the gloves on) my wrists get a little sore.

Hope everyone is having a great start to this week!!

Hanging in there

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking. I've not been stitching that much in the last week as I've been fighting a head/chest cold. I do hate the head colds as they make it nearly impossible to sit with glasses on your face so you can see to stitch. I'm about 2/3 done with my second Halloween SAL piece for the Oakhaven Designs group. Hopefully I can get that finished this week. Better late than never as they say!

The new job is going along smoothly for the most part. The training is officially over now and after Wednesday they won't be checking behind us anymore. I'm looking forward to being able to order as much work as I can get done every week day. I've decided, after dealing with it three out of the four Saturdays of training, that I can't order work for the weekends. It's really hard to work with the kids at home. I know, eventually I will need to figure something out as they will have vacations and summer break but I think I'll let that go until I'm more comfortable doing the work. It should be interesting the first week or so getting a routine/schedule as I run out several times a day to pick up or drop off the kids. Once I get the routine down, I should start to actually enjoy the work. You can't ask for a better job, work from home and you set your own hours. Perfect for those people that have really wonky schedules like me. lol

I hope everyone is having a great Monday and that the week is a good one.

Another awesome giveaway!

Check out Jennifer's giveaway for her 8th wedding anniversary! I LOVE Tanya A/K/A The Sampler Girl's designs!

A beautiful Christmas giveaway!

Check out Nina's blog and see what she's giving away!

A couple of great giveaways!

Check out Jolene's blog for a pretty awesome giveaway. I love it!

Check out Kathy's blog. I love her blog and her "little man" is so adorable I just want to take him home with me.

Finally some pics

Sisters Unite designed by Oakhaven Designs

Almost done with this Little House Needleworks design

Another cute Oakhaven Halloween design

Yet another

I love this one, and yes, it's an Oakhaven Design

I finished this one but can't seem to find the finished picture. This was supposed to be for my Halloween SAL but I finished it so fast I have to start another one. lol

I have to say a big thank you to all the lovely ladies who stopped by and commented on my last post. I have gotten (well almost) over the picture debacle and have fixed the Stitching for a Cure ornament mess. Thankfully, Donna is such a lovely person she said to just send them and if she can get them on the tree she will. If she can't, then she'll just auction them off individually. Whew! that was a big relief!! I have to say once I got the receipt from the postal clerk I felt like a ten ton weight had just lifted from my shoulders. Now, if I could just fix the picture issue that easily!!! I think if I take my computer to someone they could probably find them somewhere still sitting on it or I'd like to think so at least. lol

I am a total flipping Idiot!!!!!

I can't believe how incredibly STUPID I am!!!!!!!! Here is where I have to tell you how badly I've neglected my stitching corner. I haven't touched it other than to throw more patterns and projects on the pile. Last night, I decided I couldn't stand to look at that mess any more and started going through the massive mess. Horrors!!! What did I discover???!!! My package of finishes for Donna's Stitching for a Cure tree was still sitting there waiting to be mailed to her. I must have moaned or whimpered because DH asked me what on earth was the matter. This week has been a pretty crappy week when it comes to my stupidity. This was the second stupid thing I discovered I did or in this case, didn't do at all. I now get to do the crawl of shame to let Donna know how totally mortified I am for my own stupidity.

What else could I possibly have done to top this you ask? Well, lets see, hmmmm. Our computer has been slower than normal, couple that with the fact that I knew I had to download/upload a computer program from the data entry company that I will be doing subcontract work for soon. I decided to remove all my cross stitch patterns and pictures from the computer and put them on one of my flash drives. I thought I knew what was on the flash drive so I formatted it without checking it first. I then copied all files to the drive and deleted them from the computer. After I did this I checked the amount of room left on the drive and was a little concerned as I had a lot (a ton actually) of extra free space left. This wouldn't have been the case if I had actually used the right flash drive. I spoke to my DH and asked if he had saved anything to a flash. No, thankfully, he hadn't. Yes, you would think I should have asked him this before I formatted the stupid drive.

A couple of months ago, we received some much needed software so I could work with Logan on his speech and other therapies at home. We had an older computer that wasn't being used so I set that up for him. At that time, I removed all our family pictures and put them on a flash drive and deleted everything else from that computer. Do you see where I'm going with this yet??? When the truth hit me, I thought I was going to be physcially sick. Most of those pictures, gone, wiped out, never to be seen again. I do, thankfully, have some that we had printed out but the majority are completely gone. Add this stupidity to what I discovered last night and I think you can get the picture of how totally miserable I feel right now.

I do have some progress pics of all the stitching I have done lately but I think you can understand why I'd rather not touch any picture at this particular time. I will get back on here sometime this weekend and post them. Right now, I have to e-mail Donna and try to explain my stupidity.

A quick update....

to let you know that I've actually been stitching. I will get some pics this week sometime just not today. Mondays are not the best days in this house and today seems to be worse than the norm for some reason. I've done more running around than normal today and I can feel it. I had to run some errands this morning before making my way back home after dropping off the last child at school. By the time I got back home it was around 10:00 and I had the worst headache. No problem, throw on a small pot of java and that should take care of it. It was then I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Duh! I did eat and enjoyed a nice hot cup of coffee but it's not doing the trick.

It's now almost 4:00 and this headache will not let go. I'm hoping now that Logan and the two little ones are home I can sit and relax until Marie gets home. I think I'll do up another small pot of coffee and sit with my feet up. Maybe a little rest and some more food will kill this bugger once and for all. lol I will get the camera out of the bag and take some pictures of my stitching from this past week tomorrow. Logan will have to stay home as he came home at 3:00 with a temp and they have a rule that children have to be without a temp for 24 hours before they can come back. He seems fine to me; running around like normal so who knows what it was but I don't mind not fighting him in the morning to get on the bus. It will be fun getting him in and out of the van while taking Katie and Ryan but hey, I'm not even going to think about that right now. lol

Happy Monday and I will be back with pics tomorrow.

Lordy! I did it again, Oy!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted on here. I thought I was supposed to have more time now that the kids are back in school but it hasn't happened yet. It's now starting on the fifth week of school and things may settle down soon but then again.....maybe not! LOL



Let's see, no pictures to show of all that wonderful stitching I've done. Okay, I haven't done much stitching lately but I could still at least snap a picture to show what little progress I've made. If I did that I might actually get the pictures off the camera from Logan's birthday back in July. Geesh! I've been a very bad girl lately. No stitching, no pictures and I still need to send my mother-in-law and my mom pictures from Logan's birthday. Maybe I can get them off after Marie's birthday this Saturday. DH is planning on taking a vacation day on Friday and taking her to Universal Studios as a surprise. I have to keep telling her to behave herself or she'll ruin her birthday surprise. I can't wait to see her face when we wake her up extra early Friday morning!



My life got a little crazier than normal the second week of school when little miss Katie came down with the flu. She was out the entire week and I had to take her to the pediatric urgent care to get some meds for her. It turns out she is allergic to Tamiflu and it only made her stomach worse. It got a little scary there but thankfully she was able to turn it around on her own and started getting better by Saturday that week. Whew what a week that was!!! Somehow, I was able to prevent the other three from catching the flu but at one point they all had a little fever and mild cold. Thankfully they never got any more than that and we survived the first three weeks of school. Last week, they all made it through the entire week without coming home early. Yeah!!

Now, this week, I'm ready for the bus schedule to get to a more normal pace so that things can get into a rhythm. I can dream, can't I????? LOL

Happy Monday everyone!!!!

WOW! Time flies when you're having fun!

Marie doing her morning reading

Logan and his favorite birthday gift. It's loud, noisy and of course, he loves it!

Katie and Ryan snuggling before bedtime.

My gift to myself; I'm looking forward to finishing and framing it.

Gift for DH if I can just make myself sit and stitch at the blue. It's the logo for the TampaBay Rays baseball team.

So, what have we been doing with ourselves these past four weeks??? Well, my diet is going great! I've lost almost ten pounds in all and am doing pretty good on the exercising. I've started helping DH by cutting the grass. I actually like getting out there and sweating my butt off while I have some "quiet" time away from the kids. Yeah, I know; running lawnmower and quiet are not usually words one uses in the same sentence. If you're a parent, you know what I mean. LOL

The kids and I have been going to the park at least three times a week and started hitting the beach twice a week lately too. Of course, when we hit the beach, DH has to be with us as taking three or four kids and all their junk is nearly impossible for one person. Although, I have weeded a lot of stuff out as I see that they don't use things. I gave up bringing any of their chairs or extra umbrellas. We take a couple of huge towels to throw down so they can track sand all over them. Of course, we can't forget all their toys now can we?!?! The only ones who play with the toys are Katie and DH. Although, toward the end of our last visit, Marie and Katie did join in the castle making fun. Logan stays in the water when he goes with us and you can't get him to come up at all.

Logan is still enjoying summer school just not the getting up and on the bus by 7:00 a.m. every morning! We took the time this past weekend and finally put the boys beds together as bunk beds instead of having them side-by-side. Logan loves climbing up into his big boy bed. Now, if I can just get him to go to sleep before 11:00 p.m. each night things might get easier for the mornings. LOL Today we had a nasty morning but he ended up in a better mood by the time the bus got here. He has been wearing a harness to keep him from moving around in his seat but he absolutely hates it and I have no more energy to fight him anymore. He's just going to have to be free other than the seatbelt. He only has one more day this week and all of next week and it's over so they will just have to deal with his constant movement and kicking.

Four more weeks until the "real" school year starts and all of them will be going. Okay, so I will only get three hours (if that) each day to myself but since I never have had that since I stopped working over two years ago, I'm happy with that!!!!! I'm looking forward to getting everyone settled back into the school routine and I think they are really excited about it too. They love spending time playing in the backyard and at the beach and park but I think they all want to see their friends. I've had lots of fun with them this summer too. I wonder what I'll do with my few hours of peace and quiet?!?!?!

Stitching but no progress pics yet

Long time, no post eh?! It's been a busy week with all the kids home from school. We've been playing outside in the kiddy pools at least once a day and trying to take a nice walk in the mornings. As long as we can get outside before 9:00 a.m. the walk is great but anytime after that and it's a sweat suck-the-life-out-of-you walk. Today we're skipping the walk as they all woke up too late for it. It's back to the horsey rides through the house with Mommy being the horsey. At least I get my exercise that way right?!?!

I have been stitching but no progress pics to show. I finished my second Peace, Love and a Cure to send to Donna and I have one more ornament to finish stitching before I can send her package out. I did try my hand at finishing but I made a mess out of two cute smalls so I have to give up (for now only) and send all that I have to Donna to finish for me. She's such a great lady, she agreed to finish all that I have stitched for her Stitching for a Cure tree.

I've been meaning to get on here with a post but with all the kids home and Logan's habit of turning the computer off, my time on the thing has been drastically reduced. I'm hoping to get into a nice schedule of fun, school work (summer we like to keep everyone up-to-date and have them practice what they learned this school year) and down time soon. Logan's summer school will be starting in about two weeks so a different schedule will begin soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the later waking up time when I can get it, especially as I'm having to stay up later with Ryan. Oh and I've given up coffee so it does make for a harder wake up time in the morning. On top of everything else, I've finally pulled my head out and started exercising and eating better so I can lose some weight. I hope to be down to a tollerable dress size by the time the kids start school in late August. Wish me luck!

A few awesome giveaways!

Okay, if you could have seen what I just did you'd be shaking your head and chuckling at me. I put in my title and promptly hit enter instead of tab and posted this with NOTHING in it. I tell ya' if my head wasn't firmly attached......

Kathy

Melissa

Karen

Gaynor

Good luck everyone!

Check out CindyMae's Giveaway

Go to CindyMae's site here and check out her awesome giveaway! I can't wait to see who wins and what she comes up with for them!!

While you're there; check out her designs and how Jenna finished her latest 4th of July pattern.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Pics

Brown Ribbon is for Colon Cancer

Completed OHD SAL

New pattern on Stitching for a Cure site.

I did do a lot of stitching this past weekend but I also did a lot of frogging. I figured I just needed to continue stitching on easy patterns while the frogs were visiting or I'd give up and not touch anything for another month. I really like the new pattern that Donna has on her blog. It was a fun stitch and the colors are pretty. I did substitute a few for floss I had in my stash or I would have had to wait until my next visit to Michael's and I have no idea when that will be happening. I didn't feel like waiting forever so I made do with what I had and I like the outcome.

Now, I really, really, REALLY need to work on my finishing. I need to just bite the bullet and try different techniques or I'll be sitting here biting my nails and miss out on all the fun everyone else has been having. I have just about everything I need to do the flatfolds but I've been to scared to attempt it on the Peace, Love and a Cure yet. I do have a few other things I could try first but I think I've been afraid to find out that I'm really not THAT crafty and that will really make me cry. Wah wah wah! Oh, just stop being a namby pamby baby and "just do it!" already. At least do it this week before the kids are home from school for the summer and you'll really have an excuse for not being crafty! Yikes!!! ;)

The frogs came to visit!

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks, okay, months. I was finding time to stitch before but life got in the way when the kids got sick then hubby and me too. After that, I had no stitching mojo to speak of at all. I did start the OakHaven Designs SAL but only had the first part done when the mojo flew out the window. Last week we had tons of rain and yes I mean tons! Our area alone had over 27 inches of rainfall. You would think that it would have been perfect stitching weather right? WRONG! No mojo and I was sooooo wanting to get back to things but just couldn't pick up the needle and thread.

This past weekend I was determined to get back into the swing of things. I picked up the second half of the SAL and frogged more than I stitched. I gave it up for a little while and went to work on my next ribbon for the Stitching for a Cure tree. OMG! I think I pulled the thread out and started over at least three times. Now, I've been wanting to get back to my LHN Bookshelf or my Monopoly but I was at least smart enough to stay away while the frogs were camping out. I think they stayed around because all the standing water was heaven for them. LOL

This week calls for clear and hot days with highs in the upper 80's to low 90's and it's perfect stitching weather. Will I get to do much????? It depends on how quickly I get caught up on all the laundry and other regular chores. Throw my spring cleaning in the mix and I'd say that the stitching time is drastically reduced. CALGON take me away!!! I need stitching time to relax from the chaos that we call life. LOL

Next post I hope to have pics of the finished SAL and a finish of the ribbon for SFAC. I hope everyone is getting lots more stitching time than I am and am looking forward to summer when there is not a lot of running around to do each day! June 8th, here we come!!! Woo Hoo! No more getting up early and making lunches at what feels like the butt crack of dawn after an almost sleepless night. Yep! You guessed it; the boys are back to keeping me up or getting me up after a few hours of sleep. I think once our summer routine hits things will settle down or at least I can sleep in later! (IF they let me LOL)

Been MIA

A quick post to let you know that I am alive and kicking just not a lot of kicking. LOL The kids have been sick off and on for about a month now and I finally came down with it. DH came down with it last week and it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to it as well. Hopefully I'm on the mend but I'm still having trouble breathing through all the gunk in my head and chest. At least the sore throat has left the building for parts unknown!!!

Not much done on the stitching front as I didn't want to have to spend more time frogging then actually stitching and because I got a neat gift for MD. I hope to get back on my OHD SAL part two soon and I need to post a picture of part one. I haven't worked on any more of the cancer awareness ribbons either but that will start again once I'm back to 95% which should be soon.

Other than being sick on Mother's Day it was a nice relaxing day. The kids got me a NintendoDS with BrainAge and BrainAge 2. Of course, due to the cold I've not done to well on either of them and DH has actually really enjoyed playing with them. Go figure right! I think I know what he needs for Father's Day so I can get my game back. LOL It's lots of fun and the competition is fierce in this house. Maybe after my cold goes away I can actually get a better brain age. Hmmmmmm don't think I should touch that one. LOL

Cancer Ribbons

For Aunt June who battled breast cancer over 20 years ago. We miss you!

It states that light blue is for childhood cancer. There is a young girl who has breast cancer. Her name is Hannah and she's ten years old. Go check out her parents blog here. When I started stitching this I just wanted to stitch one ornament for every cancer. I think we can dedicate this ribbon to Hannah. Purple is for pancreatic cancer which I believe is what Aunt Becky was diagnosed with eight years ago. Her cancer was so advanced that they opened her up in surgery, they had to close her right back up. She passed away a couple months later.

The finish for Peace, Love and a Cure; just need to finish it into a flatfold. I found some pretty material at Wal-mart last week. I have everything I need to finish it except for time but I'll find that soon! LOL

For Grandpa Moreland who was diagnosed with leukemia when I was fifteen. He went in to have bypass surgery when I was flying from Conneticut to Arkansas to spend the summer. Due to engine trouble, I got stuck in St. Louis and didn't get to Little Rock until a day later. While I was out of the loop, they got the diagnosis. That was the last summer I spent with him and we had a great time visiting and driving my Grandmother crazy.

For Grandma West. She's gone now but was a breast cancer survivor.

I plan on doing as many of the colors that I can get done between now and the time Donna raffles off the tree. It surprised me how many family members and friends I've lost to cancer. I've never sat down and thought about it until Donna mentioned that she'd like the story behind our ribbons as she's thinking about writing a book about her experience.

A New SAL

If you're interested in doing a SAL why not join us at Oakhaven Designs? It's called Love Grows, there are only four colors involved and it won't take long to complete.

If you are interested, please go here quickly as Monday is the day to e-mail Tonya. If you don't get it done that day you will miss out on an awesome SAL. If you want to check out the other SAL that we just completed check out my post from March 30th as my completed SAL is pictured first. Hope to see you there!

P.S. I will post more later but I just realized that we don't have a lot of time left to get into the group for this new SAL and I didn't want anyone to miss out!

An Award

Kelly gave me this award, so a HUGE thank you goes out to her!

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. "

The rules call for you to pass this on to eight people. Although I feel that a lot of people deserve this award, I can't list everyone so I will randomly pick a few that I love and here they are:

Donna - who is doing something pretty special for the American Cancer Society. Check that out at Stiching for a Cure

Tanya check out her new site for all her awesome patterns at The Sampler Girl

Kathy

Cindy - check out her new exchange blog here!

Lana

Ms. Bookworm ;)

Michelle

Mylene

OMG! What a way to spend Spring Break!

A quick update before I call the pharmacy again. It turns out poor Logan isn't just suffering from allergies but has strep throat too. He didn't communicate that he was in pain until late yesterday afternoon. Today, we were able to get him into see the local doctor. DH had to go see if he was going to be picked for jury duty so all the kids came with us. Katie came down with what I thought was just a head cold. Ryan started back up with the cough and runny nose this morning. The doctor took a look at all of them and then proceeded to check them all out. Yep, you guessed it! They ALL have strep throat!

I'm waiting on the pharmacy to fill their prescriptions for antibiotics so I can start them ASAP. He said they'll all no longer be contagious 24 hours after the first dose so we should be able to still head to Ryan's neurologist's appointment tomorrow. My children (the one's that have had to have them) and antibiotics don't get along. They kill all the good stuff along with the bad stuff so I have to fight twice as much junk the entire ten days. I just left a message for hubby to stop by Publix for some diaper doublers and some yogurt for those children that can have dairy. For Logan, I get to start him on some other supplements as soon as the antibiotics are done in ten days. I've never had all four kids sick at the same time before so this should be interesting. LOL Please say a prayer that I survive this week and still have my sanity by the time the three go back to school on Monday.

End of week update

Stitching for a Cure ornaments

I was able to finish one ornament for Stitching for a Cure and start on another but then life got in the way this week. Ryan was still running a little fever on Monday and his cough sounded like a frog so he stayed home on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday Logan just didn't want to move at all which is totally unlike him. He stayed home that day but was fine by the time we got back from dropping Ryan off at school. I think he was just tired as he woke up at 2:00 in the morning and didn't get back to sleep for an hour or so.

He has been having issues in school due to the change in teacher. We've been trying different techniques for calming him down and I think we finally found "the ONE". A nice warm bubble bath does wonders for his moods. Yesterday he had a meltdown before the bus came so I decided to just drop him at school when I took Ryan. Well..... it didn't quite work out the way I planned and he ended up just staying home with us. LOL It was the last day of school before Spring Break so I just gave in and let him stay home and be babied.

On top of having both boys home at different times this week, I've been dealing with the school regarding the teacher they want to put either in his class or in another Autism class next year. One of the parents mentioned that this teacher had been disciplined for abuse. There was more than one person who witnessed this episode and another episode that wasn't reported. To make a long story short, we contacted the school board. Keeping fingers and toes crossed that things are settled at the meeting we have to schedule for after spring break.

I'm not sure how much I will be doing this next week with all the kids home. The weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful; sunny and in the 80's. We have one day of running around but the rest of the time is free to play. Lots of outside time, movies, painting and games are on the schedule at this point. Hopefully I will find some time to sit and stitch as I really want to get some more ornaments done. I looked up the different ribbon colors for the different cancers (site provided on a link on Donna's site) so I'm thinking I can do a couple different colors just not sure which patterns I want to try. Loved the heart with the blackwork so may do a few more of those. I will post pictures when I can but if you don't see a post next week, you'll know why.

Happy Easter everyone!

Something to think about

I've been following Donna and her stitching for a cure tree for a while now. I'm also following her personal stitching blog too. She's got a great idea for raising money for cancer. She's doing a stitching tree. She has links in her sidebar for all the free patterns that can be used to make ornaments for this tree. In November the tree will be raffled off and the proceeds will be given to the Amercan Cancer Society.

I recently finished LizzieKate's Peace, Love and a Cure and although it isn't what she needs for the tree I've told her I want to donate it to her cause. I'm also going to stop what I'm currently stitching and pick one of those free patterns and stitch up something for her tree. I've lost several family members to various cancers over the years and I need to do something to help. If I can help by doing something I love, like cross stitching then I say GO FOR IT!

How 'bout it? Is anyone else out there up to the challenge? Can you take a couple hours of your time and make a beautiful ornament for her tree so we can help fight the good fight?! I dare you, no, I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to pick up the gauntlet and run with this. Who's with me?!?!?

Oh and I forgot to mention the absolutely awesome finishing website that she has in her link on there too. She has everything you need to start the ornament except the floss, needle and cloth.

One more thing; it's a favor that I'm asking of all that read my blog. If you could possibly take a minute or two and just put something on your blog that directs people to Donna's Stitching for a Cure site so they can read what it's all about. The more people who see this, perhaps will mean more people willing to stitch an ornament for her and the American Cancer Society. Thanks!!!

Pictures from this past week

Oakhaven Design SAL - completed!!

LizzieKate's Drama Queen for Katie and Marie. I was stitching the one for Marie when Katie asked if I'd make one for her. Now to finish them both!

Peace, Love and a Cure (LizzieKate)

I also was able to finally start my Monopoly SAL. I cheated a bit; didn't bother pulling all the thread needed, only what I needed for the first page. I didn't want to have to wait until I made a trip to Michael's to be able to start.

What a busy week I had! I stitched most of this, dealt with a sick little one, and still did all the cleaning and running around, not to mention the mounds of laundry that are a normal fixture in this house. I didn't get to do any walking but Katie and I did work on her ABC's and some numbers so I call the week a success! I'm also wanting to start a chart by Little House Needleworks called The Bookshelf. I went a little overboard (for me, at least) and purchased some LizzieKate and LHN charts this month. I haven't purchased new charts/booklets in over 20 years so the little bit I spent made me feel so guitly. (But not guilty enough to stop myself as you can see LOL) I'm now saving up a little bit more so I can do another purchase but this time from Tonia at OakHaven Designs. She's has some great charts and I've been drooling over them for a while. I can't wait to get those and add them to my start list. Hmmm, perhaps it's time to also look back at my starts that have been sitting forever and pick them back up too.

This past weekend was pretty nice at least on Sunday. We were able to get outside with them yesterday afternoon for some much needed running around and play time. Ryan and Logan enjoyed climbing the ladder and sliding on the slide, while the girls ran around playing with the frisbees and the baseball (plastic thank goodness!). DH and I played frisbee while we chased them all around and at one point I was holding Ryan and throwing the frisbee back and forth. I really need to do this a lot more as my arms are aching today. LOL Now to do this enough where I can actually lose weight. No go with the weight loss but I will make myself walk this week and play outside more so that I can get some exercise. I just want to lose inches so my clothes fit or so I can get new ones when they are too big for me. LOL

Don't forget April is Autism Awareness month. If you don't know much about it, just give me a shout and I'll be happy to give you some information about this issue. Logan is six, almost seven and was diagnosed right before he turned three. He's a great kid and finally communicating enough to where we can understand him. What a great milestone! Now, if we can just get him potty trained! LOL

November finished!

I loved doing this one. I stopped and started a lot but it was easy to do so. One more to go and I'm done with the entire SAL. I can't believe it! Woo Hoo! I'm going to finish a SAL right along with most of them Yeah!!

I finished the November piece late yesterday afternoon and still found time to start a small project that I'd been admiring and finally ordered. Sharon did the Drama Queen pattern from Lizzie*Kate for her daughter and I loved it! I knew I had to have it and do it for my girls. I've changed some of the colors a bit because Marie loves purple so I went with more of a purple color scheme for hers. I will have to add something for Katie as she's technically still "in training" and hers will be in pinks and lots of it. I guess I could make one for me but it would have to say something like "I put the Queen in Drama Queen!" LOL

Today didn't start off on a good note but I think we're settled down now and it will turn around by the end of the day. Marie woke up not feeling well and thankfully my Mommy radar was on overload. I kept her home with the stipulation that if she started feeling better by the time we took Ryan to school that I would drop her off then. She's home for the day with some kind of stomach bug. Thankfully I believe she's feeling better because she just asked for some soup and said her stomach is growling so loud she can't hear anything else! That is a good sign; thank goodness!

Logan has been sleeping in his big boy bed for two weeks straight now! Woo Hoo!!! If I had known that all it would take is for us to get rid of that stupid sofa, I'd have trashed it myself and threw it out the door months/years ago! Now, if I can just get him to go back to sleeping all the way through the night. The past three nights he's woken up in the middle of the night screaming and punching. The only way to settle him is to snuggle and tickle when he starts the screaming. He eventually falls asleep but boy, that sure does take the sleep out of a good night's sleep. LOL

Katie and Ryan are both doing great this week. Katie had a little stomach bug or something last week but is all better. Ryan's over his nasty stuff too now, so once Marie gets back to normal all will be great in our house. (Keeping fingers and toes crossed that no one else gets sick for a little while!) Spring break is just around the corner so I hope that they are all better and don't get anything else so we can have some fun out in the sun. I will be breaking out the water slides again and I think we'll be able to keep them out after that. I do believe once we're over this teeny tiny cooling spell that supposed to hit this week (low 70's during the day; some cooling spell right?!?!) that it will jump right into the hot summer temps. We'll be looking forward to summer vacation and weekly excursions to the beach.

Happy Spring everyone, I know, I know, it doesn't offically start until Friday but.....

September and October finally done!

I liked doing this one; had to stop and start too many times to count as the kids weren't allowing me to have any stitching time.

September was fun until I had to do the french knots. I do hate them things!

I didn't think I would ever get these two months finished. I'm so glad that I finally did though. I received November this morning and hope to start sometime today. I did the outlines last week for these two and the remaining two months so all I have to do now is stitch the actual design. Yeah!

Katie and I just got back from a nice walk around the neighborhood. She has soooo much energy. I just wish I could have 1/100th of it! She was a little pink by the time we got back and even though she wanted to keep going I thought it best to take a break for some juice (actually more water than juice but she likes it!) In about ten more minutes we are heading out back to play and sit in the sun. It's going to be a nice week with temps in the high 70's to low 80's the entire time. Don't see much rain in the forecast until this weekend so Katie and I are really going to enjoy our days!

Last Friday I got it into my head to add an insert to the child gate that we have out back to keep the kids from running off. My DH made it look so easy when he put the stupid things up last April so I thought, piece a cake, I can do this no problem. Well, let me tell you! I found out just how out of shape I really am by the time I was 1/4 of the way done with it. LOL We had two extra inserts (two panels each) and I wanted to make more room for the kids so they can run more. Katie was great and never even tried to get out and see what I was doing. She'd check on me and bring me my water but the rest of the time she'd play quietly by herself in the shade. We now have about and extra six feet of space added to our little backyard haven and the kids loved playing in it this weekend. My hands and wrists only ached for about a day but my legs ached for a lot longer. LOL Hence the walk this morning; have to start using those muscles a lot more so when I do some outside projects they don't make me pay for days for it!

Enjoy this lovely Spring day everyone!

Conversations with children

While reading some other blogs, I happened upon At the Honeysuckle Tree's post today. It got me thinking of all the cute conversations (and not so cute) that the kids have with each other and with me each day. I try to remember the cuter ones and fill DH in at the end of the day but more often than not I don't think about it again until he's gone again. I don't think I will tell him about the first one. ;)

Each day, I have to get all four up and ready to go. I have three that go to school and one that stays home with me. The older two ride the bus but the three year old is too little (Yeah, I know it's all me!) and I take him and pick him up every day.

Katie "Mommy, what did that moron do?" after I commented on another driver and their "wonderful" driving skills. Oooh that could have been SOOOOO much worse. Whew; got lucky there.

Ryan "NO! we're going THAT way!" this conversation/argument happens every SINGLE day on the way to school. Katie will say "NO! we're going THIS way!" The thing that always cracks me up about this conversation is that they are both pointing the EXACT SAME WAY. I know other drivers are wondering why I'm laughing so hard. Ohhh if they only knew.

Standing outside waiting for the bus to come for the older two the other day:
Me "Marie, did you brush your hair today?"
Marie "YES MOM!" hmmmm
Me "Are you sure you did, your hair is sticking up like you put your finger in a light socket?!"
Marie as she is combing her fingers through her hair "Yes, I did, see?!" uhhhhh
Me "You have to use a brush, NOT your fingers!" OY! I then have a brain fart; she sees me do this each and EVERY morning. I have to brush Logan's hair (with my fingers) again after we get outside to wait because he deliberately messes it up as soon as I take a brush to it. Me"uh, well, uh, just use the brush tomorrow okay honey?"

Ryan "DON'T you DARE touch that!" Huh, what the?!?!?! Okaaaay. Well, it would seem he's watched Frosty the Snowman one too many times. Katie proceeded to go right along with him and they acted out the scene where Santa and the magician have it out about the magical hat. Not just once either; they acted out this scene at least five times until Marie joined in and really got them going. I was laughing so hard by the time they got bored with it that I had to go sit down before I passed out from lack of oxygen.

Okay, this one is from way way back when Marie was about two years old. I've always been the Mom that kissed the boo boos to make them feel better. It didn't matter if it was an unwashed (yuck!) foot or finger I did it. If it was bleeding, I would clean it, bandage it and kiss it several times. Well, after this I had to draw the line. She fell and scraped her bottom and came running for me. My little angel says "MOMMEEEEEEE! I hurt my butt, will you kiss it for me?" Me "Uhhhhh, no honey I can't do that. It's fine, you don't need a kiss." Okay, I think she just grew horns, "MOMMY! KISS! MY! BUTT!" Did she do this at home where no one would hear?!?! Nooooooo, she did this (on the playground) at daycare when all the other parents were picking their kids up. It's true, no one can embarrass you the way your kids can.

A little bit of this and that...

Not much stitching got done this past week. Early in the week when I finally got my stitching mojo back, I cut my index finger while making dinner. I was trying to get that stupid plastic thingy off the potato bag and it must have had a nice sharp edge. Nice deep slice; good thing I wasn't handling the food at that point. That very same night (or should I say early morning) around 3:00 a.m. Logan woke me up needing a diaper change. OMG! I do hate middle of the night stinky diaper blow outs! LOL I was trying to open the wipes and somehow sliced my middle finger (of the same hand) on the stupid container. Oh what fun that diaper change was let me tell you!

The next day when I was awake (after a gallon of coffee as neither of us could fall back to sleep before 5:00 and I had to get up at 6:30) and ready to stitch. Hmmm, a little too sore to do it without a bandaide. You know, you really can't stitch with bandaides on your fingers because they keep snagging on the thread. Not only could I not stitch but typing was just as painful; what a crappy way to start the week! I did get to read a good book though so I guess all was not completely lost. The new novel by Stephenie Meyer called The Host was extremely good. Of course, I loved her other Twilight series so I thought why not give it a try?!?! Totally different from that series but just as entertaining.

DH was sick on top of all that fun so it's not like I would have been able to get much stitching done anyway. Poor baby never gets sick but when he does WOW! He's starting to feel almost human this week but with the weather not making up it's mind he may just end up getting it again or dealing with some really fun allergies. Stay away from the kids PLEASE!! LOL So far (knock on wood!) the kids are all doing fine, a few allergies acting up but nothing major.

Ryan is loving school and actually walking to class now. His best little buddy was out most of last week with strep throat. I have NO IDEA how he managed not to get it. Another poor little guy had the stomach flu and ended up in the hospital from dehydration. We've been there done that so I'm SO THANKFUL that stayed away from him this time. He was so happy to see Tristen this morning. He ran right over to him and sat down and started chatting at him. He'd realize that Katie and I were still there and run back for a minute for a quick hug then right back to his buddy. Too cute!

Logan lost another tooth last night. Little bugger wouldn't let me near his mouth. He'd run giggling away from me until I captured him to check out his mouth. Poor tooth fairy! Not getting the tooth again this time unless she'd like to dig for it when he decides to "release it". UGH! Second one that I was unable to snag. To be totally fair, I didn't realize he was dealing with a loose tooth because he's been fine. No major screaming fits other than the normal stuff so I had absolutely no idea it was loose. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the stupid thing was even missing. I only noticed it when he grinned at me before taking off running away from me. Hmm, that hole in his smile wasn't there a little while ago. LOL

July and August done

Loved this too; so did Katie!

This was fun; love the colors!

I finished these two a couple of weeks ago but life got in the way of me posting the pictures. I was able to start on September last night and got pretty far with it before bedtime. I can't wait to finish!

On the non stitchy fun I've been having....Spring cleaning of sorts. Logan broke the couch; I ordered a new futon to be shipped to our local WM so I wouldn't have to pay shipping. One should never order something online without getting a complete picture of what one is purchasing. The futon is really nice but so not kid friendly. Or at least not my kid friendly is how I should have put it. He would have torn it to bits in less than a day. It's sturdy but the cover is held on by these dowel looking things with a tiny piece of material to hold it to the actual futon. Yeah, Logan would have gotten to those in less then a minue even with the protective plastic sheet and regular sheet I had used to cover it. LOL

The only reason I ordered it was because I thought that no store had any in stock other than the regular metal ones. WRONG! Target had a nice one for a nice chunk of money less than the one I ordered so we grabbed it. Now I could have tried to send the original one back but Logan got to another piece of furniture too. DH has a recliner just like mine, or it was before Logan played with it. The back is having issues whether you are just sitting in it and rocking or you have the footrest up. We've had to perform maintenance on both these chairs before so we know where the problem might be located if it can be fixed. That is to be done tomorrow while DH is home; if it can't be fixed he will be hauling it out to the curb for someone to take home and figure how to fix or the garbage man comes for it first. I like having a futon in my living room; I can sit down and fold clothes and actually be comfortable. It's a lot easier than sitting on the floor surrounded by clothes.

The fun part of this has been all the cleaning I've been doing in order to make room for these items. I've done some much needed cleaning to get rid of a desk that just was a junk collector. I have four children, I don't need something that will collect junk for them. We have enough crap without the extra help, thank you very much! In doing all the cleaning I finally realized that you can't always reach all the areas that need to be dusted when you do your normal cleaning. I spent two and a half days cleaning and getting rid of things. I also spent the following 4 days with severe allergy problems because of all the dust you can't reach until you start moving things around. OMG! I had a cold the week before and that was like a day at the beach compared to what I went through with my allergies. I'm sure that the pollen count outside hasn't been the greatest lately which only added to my pain. Have you ever had allergies so bad that you couldn't put your glasses on your face????

I had to take some days off while I battled my allergies but I hope to be completely done with this move by tomorrow night. I moved things and didn't really like the way it looked so I've been figuring out in my head how I want to arrange them so it looks a little better. Ever have one of those situations???

Update of sorts....

May completed

June was fun until I saw this picture; I just realized that I went over to far so the left side has three spaces and the right only has one. It was supposed to be two and two.

I'm working on August as I was lucky and received July and August on the same day. I had been on such a roll but that went out the window. I did have to stop and get everything in the backpack and bags to take to school yesterday for Ryan. I would put stuff in then walk away to do something else and remember something I'd forgotten. I did that all day Sunday until I finally thought I was done. As we were in the van I remembered one other thing I forgot and had to run back in for it. He made it to school on his first day with everything he needed and then some.

Katie cried on the way to breakfast after we dropped him at school. She's got such a big heart and it's so easily hurt. I was doing good until I saw those tears then she turned her head and closed her eyes and that was all she wrote for me. We were able to get her to smile through her tears after bribing her with food. We took her to breakfast at our favorite place and what a little angel she was there. She sat so nicely in her seat and ordered her breakfast (toast but still she was so cute!) from the waitress. She sat like a good girl the entire breakfast and for the first time in a very long time I was able to eat a meal while it was still hot.

Laugh, go ahead. You take it for granted until you don't have it. You'd think with all the cold meals I've eaten for so long that I would have lost all the baby weight a while back but no, not me! Maybe now that I have time and one less child to lug around I can go for those walks I've been talking about with such yearning these past years. Yeah, maybe tomorrow because it sure didn't happen today. I had to distract Katie from her heartache with a trip to her favorite store; Target. I think DH has given Katie his shopping bug! We came out with a pad of purple paper from the dollar section and some kids gloves/mittens that were marked down to 75% off. Now that the cold weather is gone (I hope it is anyways!) we won't need them but we will next year and this time I'll have them!

Off to take advantage of the quiet time to clean as fast as I can so I can sit down and relax for a bit before it's time to go pick up the little man. Have a great Tuesday!

Busy, busy, busy!

April

March

February

Here are the three months I was able to get done in the last week for the Oakhaven Group SAL. Some ladies are already done with November! Their needles are flying so fast they must be invisible! These are such fun; small and easy to stitch and you actually feel like you've accomplished something. I love it!!

It's been a very busy week here in the Cole house. Monday was Katie's 4th birthday, Tuesday we had Ryan's school transition meeting and the rest of the week was spent trying to get everything needed to be ready for Ryan to start school on his 3rd birthday. Monday, February 9th my little man will be going to school!

I went into the transition meeting with the outlook that he would not qualify (per the speech therapist from the previous week's evaluation) only to find out that he did qualify for full time Pre-K ESE with occupational and physical therapy. I went from preparing mentally for what I would need to work on with him at home to figuring out what I needed to get for him to start school! We had to get his shot record, schedule a physical, and making a list of everything he will need to take with him to school. While I got his shot record, I went ahead and got Katie's too since we are going to sign her up for VPK next school year.

She will go for three hours each day for the entire school year so she can be ready to start Kindergarten the following year. Hopefully by that time I will be okay with Ryan riding the school bus with his older brother and sister so I can drive Katie to and from school. Otherwise, I will be driving to school four times each day and that's only for those two. There is no way that I can take Logan off the bus; that's how I get him to get moving each school day. He LOVES the bus and will actually stop fighting me getting him dressed when I say "No bus if you don't get your clothes on!"

I'm hoping that DH can go with us that first day just so I have moral support. I know he'll be fine as he is going into the same class that Logan was in for three years. He has the same teacher and same aides. One of which, just so happens to be our babysitter! He loves Ms. Ann and her husband Charlie so I know he will be fine. He'll probably walk in the door and say bye Mommy and never even look back! I, on the other hand, will be having a very hard time keeping the tears at bay. Not going to be a good morning for me but I keep telling myself it's the best thing for him. He'll get the therapy he needs for his feeding issues and his attention issues. Katie and I will be on our own for the rest of the school year. Once summer comes it will be back to all of us except for when Logan goes to summer school. They may offer that for Ryan too but I'll deal with that when the time comes. LOL

A heartwarming award

I received this wonderful award from Margie. I can't thank you enough Margie! It is an honor to receive this from you.

The rules of the award are to select 5 people that I think deserve this award. There are so many people who deserve this award that picking out just 5 is going to be extremely hard.

Here are the 5 wonderful ladies that I have chosen for this award:

Nic
Heather
Mylene
Stephanie
Kelly or here

I wanted to add everyone that I have listed in my blog list but there are wayyyyy too many of them. I'd still be typing this post in July LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Goodness....three posts in one week!!!!!!!

SAL from Oakhaven Designs Group

Have I said lately how much I love this group?!?! Tonia is a wonderful person and her designs are just adorable. I plan on purchasing the mystery SAL that they did back in August as soon as I get some extra $$. Go on over and check it out, if you like purple you will LOVE that SAL.

I finished the January part for the SAL that I was talking about a post or two ago. I'm not too sure I like the silver filament that I paired with the white floss for the snowman but I do like how it turned out on the snowflakes. I just didn't think about the color of the fabric back in October/November when we first heard about it and I grabbed what I had in my stash and cut it to size the same day we heard about it! I had to come up with something to go with the white so it wouldn't get lost in the background. I think perhaps I should have gone with a lighter silver or perhaps a blue. I didn't have a blue so I went with the darkest silver I had in my stash. I think I need to go on a stash buying spree (sale items if possible) as soon as I get some extra cash in and get some more material and different types of floss.

I have received the pattern for the February part so I will be starting on that sometime today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow as the kids will be home soon as it's only half a day of school today. They had Friday and Monday off, went to school yesterday and only had half day today. I think they should have pushed the half day to another week don't you?!?! Once I finish the February I will jump back on my Autumn (Four Season SAL) and try to get that done so I will have only one more season to do and that will be completed. Then I get to figure out how to finish it. Any suggestions??

Happy Wednesday everyone!

An Award

Thank you Kelly for the nomination!

I am to list 5 of my addictions and list 5 bloggers who I think are fabby. So here goes:

Addictions:

My family
Cross stitching
Reading
Chocolate
Coffee

Now it's your turn to do the same on your blog. Claim your awards ladies!

Sharon
Robin
Nic
Beatrice
Cindy

Update

Another Christmas finish; started in December but finished beginning of January.

Autumn of the Four Season SAL

As promised from about a month ago, here are the pictures of the stitching I had been doing. I finished the Christmas one and am still plugging along on the Four Season SAL from last year. I also have another SAL that just started on the Oakhaven Designs group. I'm chomping at the bit to get this one started as I got the fabric ready as soon as I heard about it back in October/November.

The kids are home again today but will be heading back to school tomorrow. Since the weather will be extremely cold again tonight; believe they said upper 20's here, I will be skipping the therapy for tomorrow morning. It seems my van doesn't like the cold. It has been having transmission issues every once in a while where it will go in reverse but when I put it in drive it has to wait a minute or two and then it will work. On Thursday I tried to take it to run errands but it really gave me major fits so I just parked it and had hubby do them. On Friday evening I tried to go get my hair cut but when I tried to start the mustang it was dead. It barely clicked when I tried to turn it on. Hopefully it's just the cold bothering the transmission and the battery cables on these cars because if not, it's going to be fun here for the next month or so while we wait for income tax money! We've been planning on using the money we get back to take care of any issues with both vehicles so I'm hoping they continue to behave until after that time.

Plans for this week are to get caught up with everything that got pushed back because the kids were home and then get caught up on some stitching. I hope to have the January part of the Oakhaven SAL done so I can post a picture. The SAL is closed but she will sell the pattern after it's completed. If anyone is interested in joining go here. I haven't been able to get much stitching done these past couple of weeks and I'd really like to get back to at least an hour a night. Any less than that and I feel like I'm having withdrawals. LOL